Issued: 29 June 2009
Berry Well Done!
The Provost of Angus, Ruth Leslie Melville, recently visited Angus Soft Fruits, winner of the fruit or vegetable category at the 2009 Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards - the 'Oscars' of Scotland's food and drinks industry.
Angus Soft Fruits supplies strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries to supermarkets all over the UK, including Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Asda and the Co-Op. "Angus has the perfect environment for growing berries," Lochy Porter of Angus Soft Fruits told the Provost. "There are long hours of daylight, there's much lower rainfall than in other parts of the country and the gentle temperature enables the berries to ripen slowly."
Commenting on the company's achievements Provost Leslie Melville said: "Angus Soft Fruits has updated the traditional methods of berry farming to ensure it can supply supermarkets with freshly-picked, delicious Angus berries.
"It is exciting for Angus to be in a position to boast about this company, which is adapting to today's thinking and cutting down on the use of pesticides in the growing of fresh food. Angus Soft Fruits is helping to ensure everyone in the UK can enjoy a true taste of Angus, no matter where they live."
In response to the ever-increasing demand for Scottish berries, Angus Soft Fruits was recently awarded a grant of nearly £200,000 by the Scottish Government. "It's vitally important to invest in the future and this will enable Angus Soft Fruits to purchase and install a new refrigeration plant and packing line," said Lochy, who established Angus Soft Fruits in 1994 to enable berry farmers to sell their produce directly to the supermarkets.
Angus Soft Fruits represents the interests of 24 berry-growing farmers across Tayside and is based at East Seaton Farm, on the outskirts of Arbroath, where the company also produces over 8,000 tons of strawberries every year. "All of our fruit is grown in polytunnels," said Lochy. "This considerably reduces the problems that can be caused by the weather and also enables us to ensure we get the highest possible yield from our plants."
Thanks to the highly-efficient systems in place at East Seaton Farm, and all Angus Soft Fruits farms, berries are picked, packaged and labelled on-site - and are on sale within 24 hours. "Everything is geared to ensuring our berries are eaten when they're at their best," said Lochy, who added that Angus Soft Fruits is continually developing new ranges of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.
"We are forever looking for the best possible flavour, texture, shelf life and yield, which led to the Ava Strawberry, which has been a real success story for us," said Lochy, who added that Good Natured Fruit has been another of the company's success stories.
"Good Natured Fruit is a range of pesticide-free berries which was developed as part of our programme of research," added Lochy. "Rather than using pesticides, we eliminate the insects which can harm berries with tiny, insect-eating bugs."
Lochy informed the Provost that Good Natured Fruits, which was awarded the Supreme Award at the 2008 Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, is proving very popular. "In fact, as well as strawberries and raspberries, the Good Natured Fruits range now also includes blueberries, as well as the salads range of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers."
But no matter how much development work is undertaken, in Scotland, berries will only grow during the summer months. "In winter, we maintain supplies to our customers by sourcing berries from all over the world - but it's always wonderful when summer returns and we're able to supply our customers with fruit grown in this area," said Lochy, as he showed the Provost around one of East Seaton's polytunnels.