Key figures from Scotland’s burgeoning soft fruit industry will gather on Thursday (16 July) for SCRI’s Fruit for the Future, the annual showcase of what is new in the sector.

Soft fruit crops in Scotland are worth around £12 million annually for raspberries and around £0.79 million for blackcurrants, although the latter value rises to an added-value of more than £200 million within the blackcurrant processing crop.

Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “One of the main driving factors in our new national food and drink policy is a commitment to build on our outstanding science and research base. Scottish science is working across the food chain to help improve our health and boost the sector. These first-class foundations will play an increasingly important role in helping to provide answers to the many questions around our poor diet, food security and environmental sustainability. Making the right choices about what we eat and drink is also good news for the Scottish businesses that grow, process and manufacture our food.

“Soft fruit production in Scotland represents a valuable sector within the agricultural/horticultural landscape. The annual value of our raspberry crops alone is around £12 million. And the addition of new crops such as blueberries has real potential to strengthen Scotland’s position in this sector, due to their perceived health benefits. The pioneering work of SCRI – a recognised world leader in this area – is further evidence of Scotland’s growing reputation as a land of sustainable food and drink.”

This year an innovative new method of combating damage caused by raspberry beetle that also helps reduce pesticide use will be demonstrated to soft fruit growers.

Damage from raspberry beetle is a major cause of rejected fruit and often goes undetected until fruit is picked. The new monitoring trap, available to growers for the first time this season, enables monitoring of raspberry beetles on crops allowing insecticides to be used more selectively.

“The new trap will help growers meet the rising demand for pesticide-free fresh produce by enabling them to monitor raspberry beetle numbers and find hot-spots in crops, so that insecticides can be applied only as and when needed,” said Dr Nick Birch, senior entomologist at SCRI and project leader. Another benefit is that the raspberry beetles, when caught, are removed from the crop – permanently. If traps are present in sufficient numbers, this can have a useful effect on the background population of the pest.

The trap has been developed at SCRI as part of a government HortLink project in partnership with East Malling, the Natural Resource Institute and ADAS. It is designed to look like a giant raspberry flower and mimics the scent of the flowering plant, attracting beetles that are then trapped in a container of soapy water.

Reducing the use of pesticides in food crops has become even more pressing following the recent EU ban on many commonly-used products and the theme of biopesticides will be continued by guest speaker Roma Gwynn of Rationale Biopesticides Consultants talking on the ‘Availability of biopesticides for use in UK-based soft fruit growing’.

The new raspberry beetle trap is just one of the highlights of SCRI’s annual Fruit for the Future event which will also look at the health benefits of fruit.

Professor Annie Anderson of the Centre of Public Nutrition Research, University of Dundee, will address the audience on the topic of ‘Five a day…healthy and sustainable’ and Dr Derek Stewart of SCRI will speak on ‘Soft fruit: a nutritional nirvana?’.

Visitors to the event will also have the opportunity to hear about current research on raspberries and blackcurrants at SCRI as well as taste some of the new selections under breeding development.

SCRI experts will also be celebrating the benefits of Scottish soft fruit at the Berry Festival being held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 25-26 July. This free event will focus on Scotland’s rich harvest of berries and look at some of the science behind them.

Notes to editors

Fruit for the Future takes place at SCRI, Invergowrie, DD2 5DA on Thursday 16 July 2009 from 1.30pm-5pm. The programme is as follows:

• 1.45pm Introduction
• 1.55pm Five a day in Scotland...healthy and sustainable? – Professor Annie Anderson, Centre for Public Nutrition Research, Dundee University
• 2.20pm Soft fruit: a Nutritional Nirvana? – Dr Derek Stewart, SCRI
• 2.40pm Availability of Biopesticides for use in UK-based soft fruit growing – Roma L Gwynn, Rationale Biopesticides Consultants
• 3pm Field Tours
  
  • Nikki Jennings – raspberry breeding and new selections
  • Julie Graham – understanding fruit quality in raspberry
  • Rex Brennan – marker-assisted breeding of blackcurrants
  • Nick Birch – food webs and biocontrol of raspberry aphids

The event is free and attendees can register on the day.

More information about attending can be found on the Fruit for the Future page.

SCRI is partly funded by the Rural and Environment Research and Analysis Directorate of the Scottish Government. It is one of five Main Research Providers that undertake research on the Scottish Government programmes of research in the areas of environment, agriculture and biology. See also: KnowledgeScotland

More information from:

Phil Taylor, Head of Communications, SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA Tel office: 01382 560044, Mobile: 07810 860 701

or

Lorraine Wakefield, Information and Online Service Officer, SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA. Tel: 01382 560047 (direct line) or 01382 562731 (switchboard)