Strawberries a sweet move
Strawberries a sweet move
By Edward Long
BOOMING strawberry sales offer British growers a real chance to grow a crop which is in demand and pays well.
But interested producers must be committed, warns a company which has grown rapidly as the sector expanded.
In 1965 a Lincolnshire smallholders son took the tenancy of a 15ha (37-acre) siltland farm to grow cereals, potatoes, sugar beet, peas, flower bulbs and a few strawberry plants.
A few years later he diversified into value-added horticultural crops and built up the soft fruit side of the business supplying a wide range of plants, canes and bushes to commercial growers.
Now John Hargreaves and his three sons operate businesses on both sides of the North Sea with a combined annual turn-over of about £2.5m. Producing soft fruit planting material is the main activity.
Wheat and potatoes are grown at Brook House Farm, Gedney Dyke, Holbeach. But the farm, which has expanded to include a further 52.6ha (130 acres) at Sutton Bridge, now only accounts for a tiny fraction of the overall income, says Alan Hargreaves, managing director of the expanded business.
Scope for more growers to move into the sector is tremendous, adds brother Rupert. "The strawberry industry in this country is only 40-50% self sufficient so the massive increasing demand, which has largely been fuelled by supermarkets, is sucking in a flood of imports.
"Even with a non-sophisticated low-input system the average yield should be 4-5t/acre and with the produce worth £1/lb wholesale there is around £10,000/acre to be made. So even a small patch of strawberries has the potential to generate some worthwhile profits."
He says it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the crop to be overdone. But anyone tempted to try it should aim to do a proper job and be aware of the need to find pickers.
Four years ago Hargreaves bought a specialist flower nursery with almost 2ha (5 acres) of glass at Walpole Cross Keys in Norfolk. That is now producing strawberry plants in modules. Stock plants are grown on compost at head height so the tips (runners) can be easily harvested and rooted on in modules.
Earlier last year, in response to requests for larger Elsanta strawberry plants, a Dutch business was started on 10ha (25 acres) of well suited deep organic sand near Eindhoven. Dutch-raised plants are now selling to commercial growers in Holland, Belgium, Germany and the UK.
The farming side of the business produces 10t/ha (4t/acre) crops of Consort and Equinox feed wheat, and 50t/ha (20t/acre) of Maris Piper potatoes, which go for both chipping and pre-packing. The 48.6ha (120 acres) of wheat provides a cleaning break in the rotation for the following high value crops.
"Farming is now the poor relation in our overall business. Last year it accounted for just 6.9% of the turnover," says Keith Hargreaves. *
STRAWBERRY BONANZA
• Small start in 1965.
• £2.5m turnover now.
• 35 full time staff.
• 100+ seasonal workers.
• 10m+ strawberry plants.
• Sales across Europe.
• Scope for new growers.
Strawberry fields forever – (l-r) Keith, Alan and Rupert Hargreaves are now reaping the full fruits of diversified cropping on their Lincs unit. The scope for more growers to get involved is tremendous, they say.
A specialist plant nursery is the latest Hargreaves venture.