Two new raspberries are being introduced by one of Scotland’s largest growers to give consumers a sweeter taste.
Angus Soft Fruits has signed an exclusive deal with Italian fruit growers’ co-operative Sant Orsola for Lagorai Plus and Vajolet, two floricane varieties developed from its raspberry breeding programme.
The Arbroath-based firm, which markets fruit for 20 growers from Aberdeenshire to Fife as well as in England, has had the berries under trial and been impressed.
Commercial director John Gray said both had shown sufficient promise for the firm to commit to them and to look to increasing the acreage of them. “It’s still early days, though. We produce about 1,000 tonnes a year of rasps. That’s the potential, but there’s a huge way to go before we get to that stage (with these varieties),” added Mr Gray.
The berries yield more than the current main rasp variety, Glen Ample, which was bred at Invergowrie, near Dundee, by the former Scottish Crop Research Institute and now James Hutton Institute.
The Italian-bred rasps are large, have a good flavour and are sweet. But the biggest benefit from them is the increased shelf life they offer.
“It’s an extra day or two on the shelf,” said Mr Gray. “That means less juice in the punnets and reduced waste. Fruit quality is better and the berries are substantially bigger.”
ASF is involved in its own raspberry breeding programme and is also one of the Scottish firms involved with a UK consortium which works through the James Hutton Institute to develop new varieties.
Mr Gray said what mattered to the business was that the best available berries are grown to deliver quality and customer satisfaction.
He, however, said ASF’s own programme and that of the consortium both had potential new varieties in the pipeline.
“We have to keep up with what is out there, but by no means is this the only iron we have in the fire. Our own programme has various varieties that offer potential,” he added.
ASF is this year increasing its investment in research and development. That will double the size of its strawberry breeding programme to 30,000 seedlings and increase the raspberry work to 8,000 seedlings. It is also starting a breeding programme for blackberries.
ASF is now propogating canes of the two new Italian rasps and expects to plant the first of them for commercial cropping next year.
ASF has, meanwhile, reported a successful first year for its new premium strawberry – Ava Rosa.
The berry was developed from its own in-house breeding programme and was sold in Tesco, The Co-operative, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s from June.
Ava Rosa stems from Ava, the first berry specifically developed by ASF and launched in 2003. Ava Rosa is a larger berry than its stablemate and has a glossy red colour.
ASF expects to treble production of Ava Rosa this year with more than 2million plants of it expected to be grown. They are displacing other varieties, notably Dutch-bred Elsanta which has been the mainstay of UK strawberry production for years.