Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

James Hutton Institute’s commercial arm posts record turnover

More strawberries and raspberries were grown last year
More strawberries and raspberries were grown last year

Mylnefield Research Services, the commercial wing of the James Hutton Institute’s Invergowrie-based operations, has recorded its highest turnover to date in its accounts to the end of March 2014.

It is a record that will not be beaten because these will be the last set of accounts from MRS.

Its role as a commercial subsidiary goes back to the 1990s when it was created to maximise income from the agricultural research carried out by JHI predecessor body, The Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), but it has now been replaced by a new subsidiary which will be known as James Hutton Ltd. This new body will also replace Macaulay Scientific Consulting which was the commercial wing for the Aberdeen-based divisions of JHI.

The MRS record turnover amounted to £4.379million and is a 40% improvement on the figure for a year earlier.

The operating profit was £523,000 compared to £475,000 in 2012-13 and allowed MRS to gift aid £400,000 to JHI to help fund its scientific work.

Shareholders funds increased by £136,000 and stood at £1.151million at the end of the financial year,

Contract research income remained the biggest earner with a 65% increase over the previous year, according to managing director Nigel Kerby.

Contracts worth about £2.5million were undertaken throughout the year with two major contracts in the area of crop protection and nutrition and potato research and development largely accounting for the year-on-year improvement.

Contract plant breeding, especially for soft fruit and potatoes features strongly in the MRS portfolio.

Where varieties are licensed in MRS’s own name this leads to substantial royalty income.

The 2013/14 income from these sources was also a record at £565,230 and exceeded the half-million pound mark for the first time. The number one and number two earners are the raspberry varieties, Glen Lyon and Glen Ample, followed by the Blackberry variety Loch Ness and the strawberry variety Symphony.

Glen Lyon is largely outdated as a raspberry variety in the UK but is popular in Spain.

As a demonstration of the international reach of plant variety rights, Mr Kerby’s report highlights the granting of rights for the Glen Ample raspberry variety in Canada. Applications have also been lodged for two older potato varieties – Mayan Gold in Belarus and Lady Balfour in Lebanon.

One area which has seen decline in activity is lipid analysis which has dropped 6% to stand at £388,745.

“There are several reasons for this including recent reports that suggest Omega 3 fatty acids may not help protect against coronary artery disease and may result in an increased risk of prostate cancer. These adverse claims have resulted in decreased sales of Omega 3 nutritional supplements and consequently a lower demand for the services of Mylnfield Lipid Analysis (MLA),” said Mr Kerby.

“To counter this potential downturn we have been concentrating on growing our business in the pharmaceutical sector,” he added.

Mr Kerby is due to stand down from Mylnefield this spring after 23 years in post.