"UK: Angus farmers featured in new book "300 Farmers of Scotland"
Among those featured in the first instalment are farmers from Angus, Lochy Porter from East Seaton, Arbroath, the Mather family of Shandford Fern, Brechin and Katie Fairlie of Kilburn and Tarabuckle, Glen Clova.
Lochy Porter is pleased with the rise in popularity of soft fruit and the changes of not too long ago. Gone are the days when the main produce went into large plastic barrels before being made into jam.
Instead, Scottish strawberries and raspberries are heading straight for the supermarket shelves – and demand is increasing year on year. Lochy, who is managing director of Angus Soft Fruits, told the book’s author: “We have big advantages in this northern part of the country.
“We do not have the searing heat that growers in the south of England face. Soft fruit needs sunshine but it does not do well when there is stifling heat. We also have added daylight hours and that helps the slower ripening process.”
Angus Soft Fruits was set up 21 years ago and now has an annual turnover of £65 million, marketing produce from 23 growers in Angus, Perth and Fife. It supplies most of the main UK supermarkets and, at the peak of the season, some 200,000 punnets of fruit come off the lines of its eight packing stations daily.
source: forfardispatch.co.uk
