The blueberry harvest is under way in the Wye Valley with the early crop from the tunnels. This is around a week later than last year which was a bit early.
"The tunnel blueberries have been protected from the weather," said Chris Chinn from Cobrey Farms. "We have not had any real dramas yet, the open ground crop is looking like it will be possibly two weeks late, but there is no significant frost damage. The timing may cause a slight gap in supply though."
Growing conditions at the moment are just average according to Chris. The UK is experiencing some very heavy showers with low light levels and slightly cooler temperatures but nothing extreme.
"Volumes from the tunnel are quite normal, we are picking the early Duke variety at the moment and will move on to the Top Shelf and Valour varieties before starting with outdoor crop."
The market is relatively tight just now with low UK production, there is some Spanish blueberries around but the main Central European berries are not on the market yet. Things will ramp up at the end of July / beginning of August as growers move into the main open ground crop.
As always labour is a concern, but Chris says they doing better than most because they have retained labour from the asparagus harvest.
"Without the SAWS labour supply things would have been very desperate as there are very few European workers left in the UK."
Transport is also a big concern at the moment, not just in fresh produce but across all industries in the UK.
"Again we have been lucky with the partners we have but rates have gone up and timing is a challenge. There is no flexibility anymore in labour supply and transport and it is very important to stick to the plan which is not easy in our industry. We are now constantly seeking efficiencies to help fully utilise transport and labour resources we have."
For more information:
Chris Chinn
Cobrey Farms
Tel: +44 1989 562 770
Email: [email protected]
www.cobrey.co.uk
