Fruit Focus continues to go from strength to strength, with 2008's improvements and innovations being built on this year. As a result, the event's reputation for providing growers with information and advice to benefit their businesses will prove well justified when it opens its doors on 22 July at East Malling Research (EMR) Centre in Kent.

Apart from around 100 trade stands, whose new layout last year was much appreciated by both exhibitors and visitors, there will be a full programme of demonstrations, compered by grower-kit writer Roger Chesher, and fruit forums. The subjects of the latter, which will be addressed by leading specialists in their fields, will be of interest to growers from all sectors of the industry.

Event manager Jon Day of Haymarket Exhibitions, organiser of Fruit Focus, points out that the event's partners represent some of the industry's most influential players, who have "added immense value in developing its content, which addresses the primary issues facing top and soft fruit, and vine markets".

The partners concerned are Berry Gardens, the NFU, Syngenta Bioline, the Horticultural Development Company (HDC), English Wine Producers and the UK Vineyards Association, together with the event's host, EMR. The last of these makes a significant contribution in providing the event's site and staging demonstrations of three of its cutting-edge research projects.

Visitors need to go to EMR's stand to book for a tour of these demonstrations. One involves Dr Mark Else's LINK project on improving the water-use efficiency and fruit quality of soil-grown strawberries. The latest results of this work show the normal Class 1 yields of maincrop Elsanta - some 25 tonnes/ha - can be produced using around 75 per cent less water than current best practice.

In his trial, only 10 tonnes of water was required to produce one tonne of berries, compared with the commercial average of about 70 tonnes. Furthermore, both the flavour and the eating quality of the fruit produced by water-restricted plants were superior to those receiving the normal amount of water.

Else will explain to visitors how irrigation scheduling tools developed by EMR, Earthcare Environmental and Peter White Water Management have been used to reduce strawberry plants' water use without compromising crop performance.

Sustainable methods

In another LINK project being demonstrated, Professor Jerry Cross is developing sustainable methods of managing raspberry pests and diseases that are responsible for marketable fruit losses worth some £7m a year nationally. He is using an integrated programme, with priority being given to non-chemical methods aimed at producing high-quality fruit with a very low risk of detectable pesticide residues in the harvested product and minimal fruit losses.

One facet of the programme is the use of the raspberry cane midge's sex pheromone for mating disruption. The pheromone was discovered at EMR and the Natural Resources Institute. Another component is a raspberry beetle pheromone trap and monitoring system, developed at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, that will enable growers to target and time sprays much more accurately, with a significant saving in chemical costs.

At the third stop on the demo tour, visitors will see a concept pear orchard, devised by Sainsbury's, that is under the care of EMR farm manager Graham Caspell. It came about through the efforts of East Malling trustee and nurseryman Will Sibley, in co-operation with Sainsbury's, Chingford Fruit and EMR.

The orchard comprises four different planting systems: traditional bush, and intensive "V", double-head and single-stem "run thru". The intensive systems are widely used in Holland, where they have greatly increased average yields to some 55 tonnes/ha, more than double those of traditional English orchards.

Pressing subjects

A comprehensive programme of fruit forums will take place in the morning and the afternoon. The morning session, chaired by Syngenta Bioline's Richard Greatex and the NFU's Philip Hudson, will cover four very topical and pressing subjects. The first, How Do You Counteract Consumer Spending Pressure?, will be discussed by David Hughes, emeritus professor of food marketing at Imperial College London and a non-executive director of Berry Gardens. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Kent Business School and the Royal Agricultural College.

The second speaker will be William Wolmer, managing director of the 1,000ha Blackmoor Estate in Selborne, Liss, Hampshire, whose enterprises include top fruit with its own packhouse and store complex, a fruit-tree nursery and one of the country's first farm shops. Wolmer's subject, Carbon Footprinting in Orchards, will cover the latest research. This reveals how growers and packers can reduce their energy usage and carbon emissions.

His presentation will be followed by that of Lord Taylor, shadow minister for environment, food and rural affairs, on horticulture under the Conservatives. He is well qualified to talk about the subject because he is still active in his family's bulb-growing and farming business in Lincolnshire, and in horticulture industry affairs generally.

Horticulture Week editor Kate Lowe will also be speaking on the magazine's Save Our Science campaign, which has received widespread industry support.

The final speaker of the morning session will be Dr Roma Gwynn, an independent biopesticide specialist with more than 24 years' experience in crop protection and biological pest and disease control. She will be talking about the use of biopesticides in soft fruit.

Gwynn will also be on the platform for the afternoon session on Vines to Wines, chaired by Julia Trustram-Eve of English Wine Producers. Her subject again will be biopesticide use, but in vines instead of soft fruit.

The next speaker will be Vigo commercial manager Camilla Bridewell who will explain how growers can set up their own wineries. She will be followed by Bookers Vineyard managing director Sam Linter, whose talk on producing grapes for sale will cover how UK growers can maximise their revenue from grapes by understanding what winemakers want.

Day believes that there is nowhere else where wine growers can find such a wide range of valuable information as that offered by the afternoon forums, trade stands and demonstrations. These will cover new vine varieties, viticulture equipment, winery design, winemaking and various aspects of agronomy.

Demonstrating kit

Like last year, some of the trade exhibitors will be staging demonstrations of machinery, equipment and plant material. In addition, an integral feature of the event will again be an arena where the latest kit will be demonstrated. This will include harvesting rigs, top and soft fruit sprayers, strawberry-bed formers and soil decompactors.

Visitors will have as large a selection of trade stands as ever to visit, including a number of new ones and those of key exhibitors like Berry Gardens, whose large marquee has been an essential destination for soft fruit growers every year since 1996. The group's 75 members, spread countrywide, produce 40 to 45 per cent of the UK's soft fruit.

Other regular exhibitors include specialist English fruit marketer Norman Collett, which handles nearly 30 per cent of the home apple and pear crop, and 20 to 25 per cent of the plums and cherries. Kit on show will include equipment to seal punnets on soft fruit, displayed by Multivac UK.

FAST, the country's leading and most influential fruit advisory organisation serving nearly 200 growers, will be present again, as will the HDC. FAST communications manager Scott Raffle sees the event "as a good opportunity to promote the development work that growers are funding for their own industry". This includes some EMR projects.

First-time exhibitors

Among the first-time exhibitors is Crop Solutions, which will be launching and demonstrating its versatile tractor-rear-mounted machine that both rolls out and retrieves crop covers. The company says the machine is unique in being able to carry out both operations for all types of cover, including fleece, polythene and insect netting.

For retrieving covers after use, the machine rolls them onto a metal core or cylinder that is also used to re-lay them. It can wind more than 20,000sq m of cover onto each core, whose widths range from 1m to 5.2m.

Plant Care is using this year's show to launch its glasshouse gutter mesh, and biodegradable wool- or shoddy-based container mulch. The mesh, which prevents gutters becoming filled with leaves and debris, is made of extruded flexible or hard plastic. The flexible type clips across the gutter, while the hard type comes as a roll that fits into the gutter.

Plant Care marketing director Tim Sly explains that the mulch, used mainly for container-grown plants, is also in two forms. One is a cover that fits around the stem of the plant, and the other is a talc-coated pellet about 1cm in diameter that is spread by hand or mechanically around the plant. When sprayed with water, the pellets cake together to form a film.

Sly says the mulches prevent weed growth, help retain soil moisture and provide slow-release nitrogen for the plant. After being watered, the wool or shoddy fibres stick up and deter slugs.

Plant Solutions will be promoting its new humic and fulvic acid product Huma Root at the show and demonstrating the use of its mixture of mustard varieties that are a safe alternative to chemical soil fumigants.

The company's manager Rebecca Dawson believes that Huma Root will be of particular interest to wine growers for increasing the health and productivity of vines grown on poorer soils. The mustard varieties, selected for the high content of glucosinolates necessary for effective biofumigation, are marketed as Caliente. A plot of them was sown earlier alongside the company's stand, so that they are at the right stage for soil incorporation when the show takes place.

The enormous range of machines, products and services offered by exhibitors can provide growers with their every need, and will be attracting both existing and potentially new customers. For many companies, the show provides the only opportunity for their staff to meet a large number of growers in a short period in a pleasant atmosphere.