Investing in people to meet future demands

The 90th year of the Fruit Show coincides with the 85th anniversary of Hutchinsons, two big milestones during a period of enormous change for the horticultural sector.

While celebrating such achievements, we must continue looking to the future, to navigate the challenges and opportunities coming decades present.

Hutchinsons is doing exactly this, by investing in a significant expansion of its horticultural team to meet the growing demands for multi-faceted agronomy services. Eight new members have joined in the past two years alone, with a particular focus on supporting the rapidly growing vineyard sector.

Wine GB figures show the UK vine hectarage has more than quadrupled since 2000, to over 4,000 ha in 2022, with Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Hampshire, leading the way, although grapes are being grown across England and Wales.

With many growers venturing into viticulture for the first time, there is a clear need for specialist support, not just during the crucial site selection and planting phase, but throughout the establishment of mature, productive vineyards.

Our agronomists are central to delivering this, but so too are the specialist environmental, soils, and digital services teams that support them, especially as the demands on producers increase from many angles. Hutchinsons has also expanded these teams, reflecting growers’ needs to better understand soils, maximise production, and meet tighter environmental requirements, or tap into new stewardship schemes, such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

Tools, such as Omnia, and class-leading TerraMap high-definition soil scanning, are increasingly being used within this. The availability of yield mapping data has driven the uptake of Omnia on arable farms, and with new forms of spatial measurement being developed for the fruit sector – such as flower or canopy density measurements – so there will be more scope for growers to accurately map and manage variations in crop performance to maximise output. Having specialist advice to help analyse and interpret such data is key to getting the most from it.

Supporting a greener future

Specialist environmental support is particularly pertinent given the new opportunities available through the SFI, and perhaps more importantly, the increasing requirements for growers to prove their green credentials to buyers, says Hutchinsons horticultural technical manager, Jonathan Blackman.

“More and more supermarkets require their suppliers to be LEAF marque accredited and the whole fresh produce sector is gradually moving that way. Growers often need some kind of specialist help to gather the information necessary to meet these audit requirements.

“Even if the farm does their own environmental audit, there is also a requirement for independent verification of any self-assessment every five years.”

The recent example of a small family-owned business in Herefordshire neatly illustrates the joined-up team approach, he says. “The farmer and agronomist worked with Omnia and environmental services specialists to identify and map the farm’s environmental features to meet audit requirements. As a small family-run business, they didn’t really have the time or in-house expertise to do all of this themselves, so we were able to help.”

Carbon auditing is also likely to become a bigger consideration for growers, notes Mr Blackman. An element of carbon auditing is already contained within the latest version of the LEAF marque, and this could be built on further in the future, so tools like Omnia and TerraMap could help meet future requirements.

Discover how Hutchinsons can help your business by visiting stand K21 at the National Fruit Show.