Fruit Focus brings together leading experts, top industry suppliers and UK-based fruit growers for an annual day of knowledge exchange, professional development and networking.
Held at NIAB’s world-class East Malling Research Station in Kent on 9 July, the event will showcase new technology as well as hosting working machinery demonstrations and sharing agronomic advice and business information.
Seminars, tours, a wealth of exhibitors from across the industry and a chance to network while learning about the latest innovations are set to make Fruit Focus 2025 another unmissable event.
Fruit Focus annually brings together more than 1,500 visitors and over 100 exhibitors from the fresh fruit sector and from wine making/viticulture, allowing visitors to connect with leading product and service providers and find out what’s new as well as offering a chance to chat with fellow growers and professionals.
“NIAB is once again delighted to be hosting Fruit Focus,” said Scott Raffle, knowledge exchange manager. “It allows everyone to visit the UK’s longest established fruit research centre to learn more about the work we are doing to support the industry.”
The organisation’s popular specialist research tours, which will this year include visits to the produce quality centre, research vineyard and plum research orchard, are always a key feature of the event.
“All of the information presented at each of the tours will be new to this year’s event,” said Scott. “In the case of the research vineyard and plum research tours, visitors have had the opportunity to visit these in previous years, but we will be presenting information from research projects that are new or results that have not been presented before.”
The NIAB/Growing Kent and Medway fruit research tour will share data about new projects not previously covered at Fruit Focus and will highlight the important work being done.
“This includes results on projects to control earwigs in strawberries, and better understand the invasive pest the brown marmorated stink bug, and a project to develop non-invasive disease detection in cherry, as well as methods to treat strawberries to improve their shelf-life. We will also present the latest information on coir recycling from used strawberry and raspberry crops,” added Scott.
Other topics covered will include the precision orchard management for the environment (POME) project, which is developing improved methods of controlling pests and diseases in apples, while the Flythrive project is investigating the use of hoverflies for aphid control in strawberries.
Strawberry vertical farming will also be showcased for the first time to explain the work NIAB is doing to maximise yield potential.
The popular NFU Fruit Forum will again provide an opportunity to discuss and debate key issues, challenges and developments within the fruit industry, while live demonstrations around the site will feature autonomous equipment and robotics that promise to ease labour issues and improve fruit quality.
The morning seminars begin at 10am with How a national food strategy can deliver horticulture sector growth. With ambitious projects underway on farming profitability, land use and a food strategy, this is a chance to hear from industry speakers about the opportunities for the fresh produce sector to secure political backing to enable and drive growth.
At 10.55am, the second seminar of the day is entitled Seasonal Labour costs – what next for the Employer Pays Principle? With the publication of the employer pays principle feasibility study in June set to bring a sharp focus on worker costs within the seasonal worker scheme, experts will debate what this could mean for growers in the UK now and in the future.
Another programme highlight in the morning series is a seminar presented by Tristan Fischer, founder and group CEO of Fischer Farms, entitled Climate-controlled agriculture offers fruit growers powerful tools to enhance productivity, extend growing seasons and mitigate environmental risks. Visitors to Fruit Focus can join Tristan to learn more about the advanced systems creating optimal growing conditions regardless of external weather, providing significant advantages for modern fruit production.
In addition to the main seminars outlined here, speakers will cover technical topics throughout the day including integrated pest management, new protection methods and chemistry, the latest biostimulants and more.
Alongside the tours and seminars, there will be plenty to discover amongst the exhibitors that will be highlighting a wide range of products and services.
As Alli McEntyre, event director, pointed out: “Fruit Focus exhibitors are leaders in the field, so please take plenty of time throughout the day to visit with exhibitors across a wide range of service and product categories, from glasshouses and polytunnels to labour and recruitment.”
For more information or to book tickets/exhibition space, visit www.fruitfocus.co.uk
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