By Karen Peattie
FOOD producer Scotty Brand will supply over 200 tonnes of Perthshire-grown strawberries to Asda stores across the UK this summer after securing a contract with the multiple retailer.
Scotty Brand, a division of Airdrie-based Albert Bartlett, the UK’s leading supplier of potatoes, sources its strawberries from Bruce Farms which has been growing the soft fruit for 25 years. It has been able to increase the amount of strawberries grown this year as a result of the Asda deal which will see 200 stores sell 300g punnets from Sunday.
Despite fears by some in the food and drink industry that soft fruit crops might be left to rot if European seasonal workers were unable to travel to the UK because of the coronavirus pandemic, Geoff Bruce, director of Bruce Farms, confirmed that the business had secured a mix of British and migrant pickers for this year’s season.
“The pandemic has not impacted on production at Bruce Farms albeit a great amount of additional time, resource and money has been spent on protecting the business from Covid-19,” said Mr Bruce.
“All migrant workers go through the quarantine period as laid out by the Government, followed by induction and then training, particularly on our requirements for social distancing and hygiene. We are fortunate to have such a vast amount of open space to adhere to the necessary social distancing requirements during the picking and packaging process.”
Workers will have to live in accommodation on-site and adhere to strict lockdown rules which mean they will be unable to mix with others during and outwith work.
The climate this year has been perfect for growing strawberries, Mr Bruce added. “Strawberries take about 75 days to ripen in Scotland compared to about 60 days in England and 45 days in Spain,” he pointed out. “This is all down to the Scottish weather and climate. The longer the ripening, the better the flavour.”
Scotty Brand strawberries can be in stores within 24 hours as Bruce Farms has an on-site packing hall allowing the fruit to be picked, packed, and distributed quickly.
Michael Jarvis, head of marketing at Scotty Brand, added: “Scottish berries are a big hit both north and south of the Border, so this year we are delighted that our Scotty Brand strawberries will be listed throughout the UK in Asda stores.”
The £5.4 million-turnover firm supplies other seasonal produce include raspberries, Ayrshire new potatoes, prepared vegetables, fresh soup, sausage rolls, smoked salmon, chilled coleslaws, and potato salad. Strawberries accounted for 12% of turnover last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here