The cool dull weather has led to lower strawberry supplies than expected and more June drop in apple orchards. The poor conditions that followed vine flowering last summer have led some viticulturalists to observe poorer return bud in vineyards this year. The weather is always a major factor affecting growers, but politics provides the background to many business decisions. With the news dominated by the General Election, is there any understanding of our industry in all the promises? Whilst all the main political parties recognise the importance of British farming to national food security in their manifestos, several horticulture associations expressed concern over the Conservative’s ‘tapered’ seasonal worker policy and the NFU was dismayed by the absence of a specific agriculture budget from Labour’s manifesto pledges. At the recent Festival of Fresh, produce association leaders emphasised the strain growers and businesses are under due to production cost hikes, retail price pressures, weather shocks and horrendous post-Brexit border delays and charges. Nick Marston, chairman of British Berry Growers, said the sector was seeing “large-scale casualties”, with many businesses across the entire fresh produce industry under “massive pressure”. By the time of Fruit Focus, previewed in this issue, we will know who will be running the country for the next five years.
Cider remains at the heart of the Royal Bath and West Show. After some recent negative press concerning grubbed cider orchards, it was good to see that entries for this year’s British Cider Championships topped 450, confirming its status as the biggest cider competition in Britain. Congratulations to all the winners at this event, which showcases returning confidence in the traditional and craft sectors of the cider industry.
This year’s BIFGA Technical Day gave growers a chance to hear about new technical innovations, legislation, funding advice, and research that is supporting the sector. Look out for an interesting tip on controlling apple canker reported by NIAB pathologist Mat Papp-Rupar using a product that you can buy in B&Q. Scott Raffle reports in detail about another project that Mat has been working on. This research, funded by Overland Ltd, Growing Kent & Medway, and Innovate UK, has been supporting the development of recycled coir as a viable alternative to the virgin product. It has demonstrated that recycling coir offers much better potential than either re-using or composting coir and can achieve strawberry yields and quality comparable to virgin material.
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