Fruit Focus 2023: What to expect this July

Fruit Focus returns to NIAB at East Malling on 12th July 2023, featuring Fruit Forums, NIAB research tours, a Growing Kent & Medway showcase and live working demonstrations, as well as a host of exhibitors covering the entire industry

Funding the future of fruit production

The Growing Kent & Medway Innovation Hub will showcase the UK’s funding landscape and demonstrating the latest innovations and research investments for the fruit sector.

Visitors will be able to join tours, research demonstrations, plus hear talks about funding opportunities and how money is being invested for the sector. All projects showcased will be themed around sustainability and circularity.

The scope of research out of NIAB at East Malling is impressive – from new varieties through to pest control and water e ciency. The NIAB research tours showcase this research and development throughout the day at Fruit Focus.

The tours depart from the sign-posted tour departure point near to the WET Centre entrance, and include:

• The WET Centre tour: The WET Centre was established at East Malling in 2017 with the aim of demonstrating water e cient technology (WET), water use e ciency and modern growing systems in strawberry and soft fruit production. Funded by technology companies including Berry Gardens Growers, Cocogreen, Delta-T, Neta m, Stoller, Yara, Hutchinsons and Weatherquest, the purpose and use of the centre has evolved to investigate rainwater harvesting and re-use, substrate mixes and bag colour, crop microclimate, venting systems, nitrogen demand models and predictive models to improve crop forecasting.

• Plum Demonstration Centre tour: Previously supported by AHDB, the Plum Demonstration Centre is now funded directly by the principal UK commercial plum growers and marketing groups who are leading and directing the work programme in collaboration with the Crop Science and Production Systems team at East Malling. Of particular interest to the new funders is water use e ciency, optimising nutrition, optimum timing of tree management and its impact on yields and quality. Join the tour to learn more about this ongoing work and plans for the future.

• Vine and wine research tour: Grapevine and wine science research at East Malling is funded by UK wine producers to study topics and challenges that are relevant to the UK wine industry cool climate grapes grown and wines being produced here. Established in 2016, NIAB research scientists have been testing and demonstrating training systems, rootstocks and varieties, mechanical weed control, fertigation and frost mitigation systems. The past year has seen the building of a new and expanded winery and the appointment of a new oenologist, Belinda Kemp to work with the industry and direct NIAB’s research science to meet their needs.

• Produce Quality Centre tour: Learn about some of the latest innovations in fruit handling and storage. The technologies on-show have been developed with funding from Innovate UK, AHDB and NIAB’s industry partners, including Storage Control Systems Ltd, JD Cooling Ltd, Ozone Industries Ltd, as well as many grower partners. The tour will include an explanation of how monitoring produce response to storage environments enables packaging solutions to be optimised and to tailor storage atmospheres for both short and long-term storage. There will also be a demonstration of the advantages of gaseous ozone treatment within retail packs and an introduction to an on-going project to optimise in- eld cooling of soft fruit.

• Pathology research tour: With fewer authorised fungicides available for use than before, soft fruit growers are in need of alternative approaches both to predicting the risk of pathogen infection and to control pathogens once they have infected soft fruit plants. NIAB scientists at East Malling are being funded in various projects to improve understanding of pathogens and how to optimise the e cacy of biofungicides. Visitors on this tour will nd out more about how NIAB is predicting infection by mucor and rhizopus using climatic conditions and pathogen inoculum levels. They will also learn how it is working on three commonly used biological control agents in strawberry to obtain ecological knowledge and to develop models to predict their fate in the environment following their application, in order to be able to optimise the timing of their use.

• Fruit research & innovation tour: Join a guided walk from the Innovation Hub to hear about the UK funding landscape and how Growing Kent & Medway and wider UKRI agencies are supporting fruit research. As well as the latest ag-tech and robotics, you will see trials and research demonstrations in the glasshouse, vineyard and orchard, funded by Growing Kent & Medway, BBSRC and Innovate UK.

Seminar schedule

The packed seminar schedule runs from 9am, and includes the following highlights:

• Learnings from the M&S and Solina Carbon Trust Project: Fresh produce businesses struggling with rising labour, energy and raw material costs can learn from other sectors and embrace digitalisation to overcome strong headwinds. Jake Norman, a director at OAL will share learnings from a transformational £2m Carbon Trust project with M&S and Solina deploying state-ofthe-art robotics and automation in the UK to reduce energy consumption by 80% with single-person operation. This will be combined with insights from successful automation deployments in fresh produce at Berry Gardens, Worldwide Fruit and Wealmoor. There will be a demonstration of the software and technologies that provide the foundations for success.

• Advancements in greenhouse energy e ciency: Sustainability and energy cost savings are top priorities for fruit growers. Delivered by Signify horticultural lead, Nathaniel Dannenburg, this seminar will cover the latest updates on how companies are improving their greenhouse energy e ciency and combatting rising energy costs.

• Control of western ower thrips (WFT) & nutrition analysis with Celine: This presentation by David Clarke Thomson of Royal Brinkman will discuss control of WFT utilising Orius Cold, a more tolerant strain of Orius laevigatus which has proven very successful in eld scale trials up in Scotland on strawberry crops and is being more widely adopted in the UK in 2023. Additionally, this session will cover a new nutrient analysis system, ‘Celine’. Celine is “a lab in the glasshouse” giving growers nutrient analysis results on drip & drain within 20 minutes as opposed to 7–10 days when sending samples to the lab. Celine allows growers far more accurate ‘feeding’ of their crops which should improve yields and reduce waste.

• NIAB research update: Screening for resistance to spotted wing drosophila in strawberry and raspberry will be discussed by Adam Whitehouse, senior plant breeder at NIAB; new research into the biocontrol of strawberry diseases will be presented by Xiangming Xu, director of research at NIAB; the role of landscape complexity in agroecosystem sustainability will be introduced by Sarah Arnold, entomology research leader at NIAB; novel approaches to apple canker management and control will be covered by Matevz Papp-Rupar, NIAB plant pathology research leader; and the development of pheromones for innovative management of forest bug, an emerging orchard pest in England will be discussed by Francis Wamonje, entomology research leader at NIAB.

• Responsibly sourcing growing materials: Delivered by Southern Trident CEO, Steve Harper, this seminar will explain how growers can ensure they are using responsibly sourced growing media as we move away from peat, which is due to be banned in the commercial sector by 2026.

• The future of robot fruit harvesting: Robots are harvesting fruit around the UK – what works, what doesn't and how is this technology changing and improving? Ed Herbert, COO of Dogtooth Technologies, will host this session.

• Biopesticides: latest technologies to combat a wide range of pests: From Biobest Group product manager Sanne Torfs, PhD, bumblebees to bene cials insects, mites and nematodes, this seminar will discuss how biological agents and pesticides can increase your productivity and yields.

• Tractor-powered electrical weed control in orchards, vineyards and bush fruit: Tom Archer of Rootwave will explore how patented high-frequency electricity boils weeds from the root upwards, providing a more e ective method of weed control than cutting, burning, or hoeing the weed above the surface. eWeeding is the only non-chemical solution to provide systemic control of weeds.

• Advances in lm covering materials for British fruit production: This seminar, hosted by XL Soft Fruit’s Razvan Iftimiciuc, will talk about some of the advances made in lm coverings for British fruit production.

• New soft fruit protection technologies: Learn about a novel ‘push-pull’ system for precision monitoring of the European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis, and the common green capsid, Lygocoris pabulinus; plus an e ective adjuvant that can reduce insecticide use against spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii by 96% and reduce grower costs by an estimated 50%. In 2023, trials started in the UK with many trials in tabletop strawberry production and this presentation will share the results from the trials so far this season.

• How to improve your irrigation system to save energy & water: Climate crisis and drought have a severe impact on global agriculture. Having an e cient irrigation system can help you in reducing your cost and the amount of used water, while ensuring the yield. Mark Herriman from Sencrop will present tips to get the best of your irrigation solution by keeping an eye on every element that has an impact on e ciency – evapotranspiration, solar radiation and temperature.

Pre-registration for Fruit Focus is free of charge via www.fruitfocus.co.uk, while onsite registration on the day is £10 at the gate. BASIS & NRoSO Knowledge Trail points are available by visiting Fruit Focus 2023.