Major investment puts cream on strawberry crop
A decision to invest more than 250,000 in their soft fruit growing venture is ‘berry’ good news for Herefordshire-based company Freshfield Fruits LLP.
The company aims to develop an eco-friendly 13-hectare site at Nunnington, near Hereford, which will grow 650 tonnes of strawberries a year and employ up to 90 people during the season.
The strawberries will be grown in polytunnels which will be screened from the road and local residents by trees and bushes.
A system of drains, pumps and pond reservoirs will harvest 10 million gallons of rainwater a year to which nutrients will be added to feed the strawberries, thus minimising the need to abstract from the local River Lugg.Surplus irrigation will be collected by sealed gutters and underground drains to a central collection point for re-use rather than being allowed to fall to the ground. This avoids any potential pollution issues.
The good news for local people looking for strawberry-picking work is that the beds will be waist-high, thus avoiding backache. The strawberries will be grown on raised beds inside the polytunnels in coir matting rather than soil, thus discouraging traditional pests and diseases and making for easy picking. Growing them in tunnels will extend the harvest season to between early May and October rather than the traditional summer months.
The money from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM), under the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), will contribute to an access road, the rainwater harvesting system, the dirty water collection system and a cold store – all of which have cost in excess of 600,000.
AWM RDPE Manager Bob Gregson said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to stimulate local business, jobs and the economy in a way which will protect the environment and water supply.”
Paul Hawkins, partner of Freshfield Fruits, has farmed with his family in nearby Withington for 100 years. He said: “The support of the development agency at this time has allowed us to make what we believe are the right decisions for both ourselves and the environment by creating sustainability for the long term.
Without the support of the agency it is questionable whether we would have made the investment in the Nunnington site as it would have left us hugely exposed to changes in legislation at a time when the Environment Agency is seeking to protect our water supplies both in terms of what we take out and put in to our rivers.
The site will be at full capacity by 2012 and employing nearly 100 people at any one time during the season. This will be a great boost to the local economy. We anticipate around 400,000 a year will be injected into the local economy through the production of our fruit locally which would otherwise more than likely have been produced overseas.”
Freshfield Fruits expects to start harvesting by middle of June 2010.
This is just one of the regional projects funded by AWM recently through RDPE. Others include:
– Over 280,000 to Herefordshire-based agricultural business, Cobrey Farms, to help them and nine other local growers meet the growing demand for British asparagus.
– 129,000 funding for Red Star Growers to upgrade and improve the facilities for handling locally grown fresh produce at the company’s packhouse in Birlingham, Worcestershire
– Over 48,000 to Clives Fruit Farm, Worcestershire, to fund a number of new activities, including the modernisation and upgrade of the farm shop with a butchery counter where they will sell their own locally reared meat
– STC Packers, Cannock, Staffordshire: 1.3 million to invest in increased capacity grading and packaging equipment to meet increased demand from the UK Egg producers.
– Wye Fruit – 750,000 for an additional storage facility at Ledbury, Herefordshire, to cope with increased volume from English growers