Sustainable Intensification of UK Plum Production Innovate UK Project No: 102133 1 February 2015 – 31 March 2019 OD
AREA Annual UK crop area (ha) of Prunus fruit 1985-2017 3000 Plums Cherries Other Prunus 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 OD
VARIETIES % of total annual UK plum crop area for different varieties 1985-2015 60 50 40 Victoria Marjorie's Seedling 30 Pershore Yellow Damsons Other 20 10 0 OD
PRODUCTION Annual UK production ('000 t) of Prunus fruit between 1985 and 2017 35.0 PLUMS CHERRIES 28.9 OTHER PRUNUS 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 8.0 5.0 0.0 OD
YIELD Average yield (t/ha) of total annual UK plum production 1985 - 2015 18.0 15.7 16.0 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 OD
YIELD Average yield (t/ha) of total annual UK plum and cherry production 1985 - 2015 18.0 PLUMS CHERRIES 16.0 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 OD
TOTAL VALUE Annual total value (£mil) of UK Prunus production 1985 - 2017 25 PLUMS CHERRIES 20 15 10 5 0 OD
FRUIT VALUE Annual fruit value (£/t) of UK Prunus production 1985 - 2017 4500 PLUMS CHERRIES 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 OD
UK PLUM SUPPLY Total annual supply (‘000 tonnes) of UK marketed plums 1988 - 2017 (excl. exports) 200 Imports 180 Home Production Marketed (HPM) 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 OD
UK PLUM IMPORTS Percentage (%) of annual UK Plum fruit market that was imported between 1988 and 2017 100.0 90.0 86.1 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 OD
Gross margins of competing tree fruit crops UK average yields Competitive profitability of growing different tree fruit crops - UK av yields Apple (Gala) Cherry (protected) Plum (Victoria) Yield (t/ha/y) 35 10 15 Value (£/t back to farm) 350 3000 700 Harvesting costs (£/t) 78 1000 300 Gross output (£/ha/y) 9516 20000 6000 Establishment costs (£/ha) 20000 70000 15000 Orchard life (y) 20 20 20 Annual establishment costs 1000 3500 750 (£/ha/y) Growing costs (£/ha/y) 4500 8500 3000 Fixed costs (£/ha/y) 2000 2000 2000 Gross margin (£/ha/y) 2016 6000 250 OD
Gross margins of competing tree fruit crops UK good yields Competitive profitability of growing different tree fruit crops - UK good yields Apple (Gala) Cherry (protected) Plum (Victoria) Yield (t/ha/y) 50 15 22.5 Value (£/t back to farm) 350 3000 700 Harvesting costs (£/t) 78 1000 275 Gross output (£/ha/y) 13594 30000 9563 Establishment costs (£/ha) 25000 70000 20000 Orchard life (y) 15 20 20 Annual establishment costs 1667 3500 1000 (£/ha/y) Growing costs (£/ha/y) 5500 8500 4000 Fixed costs (£/ha/y) 2000 2000 2000 Gross margin (£/ha/y) 4427 16000 2563 OD
Gross margins of competing tree fruit crops Yield/price needed to make plum competitive Competitive profitability of growing different tree fruit crops - yield/price needed to make 5 plum competitive Cherry Apple (Gala) Plum (Victoria) (protected) 20% yield 20% price Existing best Both increase increase Yield (t/ha/y) 50 15 22.5 27 22.5 27 Value (£/t back to farm) 350 3000 700 700 840 840 Harvesting costs (£/t) 78 1000 275 275 275 275 Gross output (£/ha/y) 13594 30000 9563 11475 12713 15255 Establishment costs 25000 70000 20000 20000 20000 20000 (£/ha) Orchard life (y) 15 20 20 20 20 20 Annual establishment 1667 3500 1000 1000 1000 1000 costs (£/ha/y) Growing costs (£/ha/y) 5500 8500 4000 4000 4000 4000 Fixed costs (£/ha/y) 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 Gross margin (£/ha/y) 4427 16000 2563 4475 5713 8255 OD
UK plum industry SWOT: Strengths • Taste quality of UK plums though variable, can be excellent and greatly superior to imports • Victoria is potentially high quality, reliable, recognized and liked by consumers • UK consumers prefer UK produced plums • Several other excellent varieties to span extended season OD
UK plum industry SWOT: Weaknesses • Plums in continuing decline, many old orchards, little new planting • Output greatly reduced in frost years (1 in 5?) • Price of plums low, undermined by poor quality, low cost imports • Plums less profitable than other tree fruits, little incentive to plant • 'Victoria' predominates & floods the market for ~3 weeks in August • Quality undermined by harvesting practices • No public investment in R&D to facilitate necessary intensification of plums OD
UK plum industry SWOT: Opportunities • UK market undersupplied with UK produced plums even in August • High consumer demand for UK produced • Taste quality of some plums (imports & home produced) poor: Opportunity to expand market with higher quality fruit • Opportunity for price increase for higher quality • Huge scope for import substitution through yield increase and season extension of high quality varieties • New mechanical thinning methods available • Opportunity to develop new sustainable, intensive, high output growing systems for high quality varieties harvested nearer to ripe over greatly extended season to out-compete imports OD
UK plum industry SWOT: Threats • Competition from other stone fruits and other fruits • Undercutting of price by cheap poor taste quality plum imports • Failure to reliably supply UK plum fruit of best eating quality • Failure to invest consistently over longer term in R&D • Innovations and best practices not adopted by some growers OD
Innovate UK call Agri-Tech Catalyst Round 2 January 2014 SCOPE Innovative ideas from any sector or discipline that demonstrate the potential to advance sustainable intensification of agriculture and deliver economic impact for the UK Agri-Tech industry by tackling domestic or international challenges. The scope of the Catalyst includes: • Primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture • Non -food uses of crops • Food security and nutrition challenges in international development • Addressing challenges in downstream food processing, provided the solution lies in primary production Topics include: all aspects of arable and horticultural food production …………………………………………………….. JVC
Sustainable Intensification of UK Plum Production Innovate UK Project No: 102133 1 February 2015 – 31 March 2019 JVC
Original partners JVC
New partners (PCR Aug 2017) S W Highwood (Pluckley) Ltd JVC
Project mission In this project we will develop new intensive systems of plum production that will: • be financially attractive for UK growers to invest in • increase yields by up to 2 fold by optimised planting and tree management • develop integrated methods to regulate fruit load (frost protection, thinning) so that a larger fruit size can be assured and bienniality reduced • extend the season so that the market is continually supplied with fresh product for 4 months rather than the current 2 months • improve the uniformity of product size and eating quality, hence increasing the average selling price • together these improvements will lead to a step change in the profitability of UK plum growing • and incentivise the industry to expand JVC
Objectives/Workpackages WP1. Tree architecture manipulation and new rootstocks to maximise light interception and increase yield WP2. New varieties to improve quality and yield, and extend the season WP3. Component integrated methods of frost protection, protected cropping, flower bud, floral and fruitlet thinning, use of PGRs, root pruning, nutrition, dormancy breaking treatments, spectral imaging to assess fruit quality WP4. Integrated Extended-Season, Sustainable Production WP5. Exploitation plans for improved plum production JVC
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation and new rootstocks to maximise light interception and increase yield JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation to maximise light interception and increase yield Oblique Fan Super spindle Narrow table top Narrow A frame S spindle Double stem Triple stem Four stem Candelabra V shape JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation and new rootstocks to maximise light interception and increase yield • Two experimental orchards planted at FAST and NIAB EMR • Combination of rootstock and training systems for each plot JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation to maximise light interception and increase yield LIDAR developed in previous Innovate UK project • Tree Area Index • Tree Height • Tree Row Volume • Tree Width Effect on fruit quality and yield JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation to maximise light interception and increase yield JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation to maximise light interception and increase yield JL
WP1: Tree architecture manipulation to maximise light interception and increase yield % % anova Size Sugar ar Firm rmne ness ss Yield marketa tabl Heigh ght LAI e T raining *** *** *** *** *** *** Rootstock *** *** *** ** N.S * Signif . codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ N.S ’ 1 • Dataset normalised per site => comparable and statistically robust results • Rootstock genotype and training system equally important for crop performance • Marketable yield (%) only driven by the training system • Height and leaf area mainly driven by the training system JL
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