What 'caught the eye' of The English Apple Man at Fruit Focus
The first box 'ticked' - perfect weather - not to hot and dry all day; 'in spite' of some dark clouds on the horizon!
A record number of visitors from across the country headed to Kent this week to attend the UK's premier fruit event, Fruit Focus.
Just under 1300 visitors attended the show, which took place at East Malling Research, Kent on 22 July, to see the latest agronomy, technology and machinery being displayed by 128 exhibitors, also a record.
Jon Day, event director at Haymarket Exhibitions, said the numbers showed Fruit Focus was becoming an increasingly important venue for growers.
"Fruit production techniques are moving at a rapid pace. This year's attendance illustrates the value that top, soft and stone fruit growers put on the event, which offers an unrivalled opportunity to stay abreast of rapid change, keep businesses efficient and competitive, and to network with other progressive growers and leading industry figures."
Nigel Trood, managing director of Fruit Focus principal sponsor Mack, said: "We always enjoy being at the heart of Fruit Focus. This year we placed particular emphasis on quality and advances within the technical sector.
The English Apple Man's first call on entering Fruit Focus was to see Doug and Estera Amesz at AG Recruitment.
Below: Doug & Estera flanked by two of their recruitment team
AG Recruitment & Management is a specialist supplier of seasonal labour to the UK agriculture industry. Since 2013, they have been successfully delivering a 'unique model' of supplying seasonal labour to the UK agricultural industry.
AG recruitment offers clients a comprehensive screening and training service that is not currently available in the industry whilst remaining competitive in price.
By combining their industry experience & knowledge Doug and Estera have demonstrated full control over their supply chain.
The AG business has two primary concerns: placing workers in positions where they have an opportunity to achieve their personal goals and providing workers that are prepared for the tasks and environment in which they operate.
AG is also committed to ensuring employers and workers behave ethically, professionally and responsibly. This is fundamental to developing a sustainable working relationship.
Sainsburys Concept Conference Pear Orchard
Next on my agenda - Graham Caspell and the Concept Pear Orchard. This was part of the official FF Programme and Graham (East Malling Research Farm Manager) updated visitors on the progress of the Concept Pear Orchard.
Planted in 2009 the Concept Orchard carried circa 15 tonnes per hectare in 2010 (18 months after planting) already above the national average for Conference Pears and according to the plan a yield of 55 tonnes per hectare was anticipated by the time they were 4 years old in 2012.
The cost of establishment was very high, The English Apple Man estimated a capital investment of £35,000 per hectare, for what is a 'state of the art' plantation, but if all goes according to plan UK growers could at last compete 'head on' with growers in the Benelux countries who currently supply a high proportion of the pears sold in UK supermarkets. The potential to replace imported with English grown pears is massive.
Graham told the visitors that the Concept Orchard has 4 formats; in 2014 the V system recorded 51 tonnes per hectare - Twin leaders 49 tonne per ha - Run through '45 tonnes per ha and Traditional English system 38 tonnes per ha.
Graham explained to fulfil the objectives of the Concept Orchard trial, it was necessary to keep fruit on the tree to measure the comparative crop capabilities and the water management trials. However with the trials complete, he will be able to manage the trees in a more commercial way with modifications in pruning and particularly 'thinning' - irrespective of these constraints, the Concept Conference Pear Orchard has demonstrated that we can produce much higher yields of UK pears.
Below: Graham Caspell and part of the Concept Orchard
Below: The irrigation guide used for Concept pears - equipment used as part of the water efficacy trails carried out at East Malling - and - tree tops on the Concept Pears
Fruit Forums
Fruit Focus underpinned its reputation for hosting one of the sector's most popular forum programmes where growers can listen to and debate with leading industry figures.
At mid-day Beth Hart, who heads up the technical team for fresh foods and agriculture at Sainsbury's. Beth presented her view on 'raising the quality bar' - no doubt growers listening might have wondered if they are going to come under even more pressure to deliver cosmetic perfection. However, what Beth said made absolute sense; all Supermarkets are competing for the consumers loyalty, but if their expectation is not fulfilled........... it is so easy for the consumer to 'switch alliance'
Existing quality specs were designed to permit a certain level of imperfection because they were a realistic reflection of what was achievable. But that "knowingly designed in" disappointed customers, she said.
Today's customers had a wide choice of where to shop and would look for the freshest and the best. They were also quicker to complain, thanks to social media, which could quickly spread.
"At Sainsbury's we recognise the need to raise the bar on quality. We need to sit down with growers to define what a market-leading specification and standard looks like and then work in partnership to deliver that."
Beth demonstrated the reality retailers face; consumers shopping habits are changing....sales are down by 1.9% and volume & prices are plummeting......consumers are buying less and wasting less...Discounters are increasing their share of the market and consumers are expecting lower prices.
Below: Beth Hart
Expectations!
Beth set the scene for a 'Speciality Family Event' - Granny & Grandad, Uncles & Aunts, Children of various ages, Cousins et al; Strawberries are inevitably the centrepiece of the event, as the number one selling line in Sainsburys through the summer months - "imagine just what one mouldy Strawberry can do to influence perception" - within a specification, one mouldy fruit is allowed for; after all it is only 'one in hundreds' - perfectly reasonable, but that one fruit can completely change the customers perception - its the only one in the sample - 'social media spreads the word' and - how easy it is to change allegiance!
Each Monday Sainsburys staff investigate the past week's performance - Business Management Consultants indicate standards are not where they need to be - specifications were designed for 5 years ago - 'need to look at the problems and make it better. Beth illustrated what 'just one grumpy customer can do - 'Twitter and Facebook' - or an email direct from customers to Head Office is part of the complaints process - "a need to overhaul the quality management process" - benchmarking performance is key - "get rid of the 19 page specification" - "how do we ensure what the customer wants to buy and where they want to buy it"
Illustrating just one aspect of quality perceptions - 'taste' - Beth mentioned the 'Electronic Tongue' - 'futuristic sounding technology' designed to take the guesswork out of 'Organoleptic evaluation' - click to view an Electronic Tongue (The English Apple Man stresses this is only an example; not part of Beth's presentation).
Today - "everyone of Sainsburys 161,000 personnel and the 'whole supply chain' back to the 'source in the field' is managing quality and customer expectations..........
The English Apple Man comments.....20 years ago when the standard of soft fruit on retail shelves was variable due 'primarily' to changing weather conditions; it was not unusual to find a 'mouldy' strawberry in a punnet - even in the 'higher class' outlets - then as an industry we utilised plastic tunnels to protect our Strawberries, soon followed by Raspberries and now Cherries. This has transformed the quality of produce on retail display - a mouldy Strawberry stands out 'like a sore thumb' and of course consumers do not expect, nor will tolerate inferior quality. It is called 'getting the raw material right' - quality begins in the field - poor raw material can never be improved, but good raw material can still be spoilt if quality management is not observed all the way through the supply chain........
The English Apple Man demonstrates just one of the mediums for consumer feedback - click to view Tell Sainsburys Survey
Agrobio on Brinkman UK Ltd Stand
Late in the day just before 'all was packed up' The EAM spoke to Glenn Notley - UK General Manager for Royal Brinkman, part of the Brinkman Group and Brinkman International which has been providing products to Horticulture since 1885 one of the world's leading suppliers, active on every continent, with over 250 employees worldwide.
What caught my attention was the 'Agrobio bee hive' on display; increasingly with the use of Poly Tunnels for soft and stone fruit production, locating bees within the tunnels has become essential. Gone are the days of my youth when our apple orchards relied on my Uncle's honey bees, supplemented by the solitary bees and bumble bees in our woodland.
Agrobio is a bio-factory that produces beneficial insects for pest control and bumblebees for natural pollination.
Click to view Agrobio website
Click to visit Royal Brinkman UK website
Hutchinson's
While my association with Hutchinson's is centred on Horticulture, the company is huge in the provision of UK agriculture; more than 350 personnel work for Hutchinson's with a team of over 180 arable agronomists located throughout the UK, with more than a dozen Agronomists specializing in Horticulture.
Of special interest is a piece of technology which could easily transform the ability to accurately assess the yield of apples in our orchards. Omnia Fruit Vision is a new service that accurately counts and grades apples while on the tree. This revolutionary system uses a specialist optical sensing system mounted on a quad bike that takes 20 images per second as it passes through the orchard at about 6km/hour.
Click to view Omnia Fruit Vision
Below: Mike Hutchinson informs the media about the progress of Omnia Fruit Vision - and - Oliver with Omnia Fruit Vision equipment
Below: Kubota tractor mounted with Omnia Fruit Vision - and - Omnia operator view
Below: The Omnia has two cameras - one positioned lower and the other higher ensuring a comprehensive coverage
Click to view HL Hutchinsons website
Everris / ICL
When The English Apple Man was in Benelux with The Under 40's Conference, one of the representatives of the sponsors was Scott Garnett - 'Speciality Agriculture Manager' - UK & Ireland for Everris - specialist suppliers of fertilizer; Everris is now re-branded as ICL.
Of particular interest; wetting agents which are made up of surfactant (surface-active agent) technology. They are a large number of compounds which cause a physical change to the surface of a liquid thereby aiding water penetration into the soil.This type of wetting agent moves water away from the soil surface and down the soil profile. The product can reduce surface water and puddling, encourages deeper rooting and helps to flush excess salts down the soil profile.
Scott explained to me the importance of penetrating the soil or indeed, 'substrate' - Scott told me how new bags of Coir substrate can take a long time for the substrate to fully moisten, however with the surfactant full moisture is dramatically speeded up.
Click to view Everris surfactants
The diversity of exhibitors at Fruit Focus mirrors the changes in the last 20 years - today Viticulture is as prominent as soft fruit production - a plethora of technological advances now seems standard - exciting new developments abound......
That's all for this week - next week The English Apple Man reports on his 3 days of Judging an Orchard Competition with industry experts........
Take care
The English Apple Man