Farming News - Fruit Focus hailed a success as sector looks to innovation, resilience and growth
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Fruit Focus hailed a success as sector looks to innovation, resilience and growth
Fruit Focus has been hailed a major success after visitor and exhibitor numbers exceeded organiser expectations as the event celebrated its 40th anniversary edition 8 July 2026.
The move to the prestigious new venue was widely praised, with exhibitors and visitors highlighting the quality of the setting, the expanded format and the opportunity to bring the sector together at a critical time for British horticulture.
Sustainability, crop protection and the need to produce more with fewer resources were key themes, particularly within the Niab Research Hours and technical sessions.
Mr Raffle said Niab’s work is focused on helping growers find practical answers to problems they cannot solve alone.
“We are researching problems to which the industry requires solutions and to which they can’t find solutions themselves,” he said.
He said there was strong interest in research around pest control, thrips identification, biological control, hoverflies, soil amendments and crop production systems.
“Increasingly there is less reliance upon conventional chemistry for pest and disease control, so a lot of what we have been doing is to support alternatives and novel approaches,” he said.
“We have talked a lot today about growing more fruit with less water, less nutrient and less pesticide. Some of that work is in its infancy and some is further down the route, but there is research now at the stage where it can be adopted by growers.”
However, attendees and exhibitors also pointed to serious challenges facing the sector, including labour availability, rising input costs, pressure from retailers, weather volatility, crop protection challenges and the need for greater confidence to invest.
“Morale out there is not at an all-time high, but it has certainly improved from the spring,” he said. “Growers are looking for cost savings at any opportunity they can. There has been a lot of technology here and a lot of automation, and people are asking how to de-risk some of their investment in traditional growing and harvesting systems.”
The panel highlighted labour availability, planning, energy costs, water infrastructure, crop protection, retailer relationships, rising input costs and investment in automation as some of the most pressing barriers holding the sector back.
“In terms of growth, we don’t necessarily mean growth being volume driven,” she said. “From our perspective, it should be about ensuring competitiveness, with growth being a by-product of competitive businesses.”
“This is a really exciting, entrepreneurial sector, but we can’t do it when we get our hands tied behind our back by various Government policies that make us uncompetitive,” she said.
Rob Merrill, Business Development Director for Versatile RobotX, said robotics must be developed in a way that growers can rely on commercially.
“We recognise that, if you’re a grower, the last thing you can do is rehire,” he said. “People are going to be utterly dependent on our products, and we recognise that and take that really seriously.”
He said the challenge now is creating the investment conditions needed to support wider adoption.
“We need some pull-through now,” he said. “More than anything, investors need calm, stable market conditions so they have some confidence to actually invest. That’s the big one at the moment.”
Speaking about the event itself, he added: “What a fantastic event this is at the new venue. Bradbourne House has been beautifully executed and really well done. Congratulations!”
Dan Laskey, commercial lead for Fotenix, said automated crop scouting can help growers make better use of skilled staff.
“Yes, it can cut down the manual walking up and down and manual scouting, but it also allows skilled workers within the greenhouses to make more educated decisions,” he said. “They can spend their time doing better things, being preventative rather than reactive.”
He said growers do not simply want more data, but clear insight that helps them act.
“We are getting a lot of feedback from prospects and customers saying: ‘That’s fine, we’ve got your 250 measurements, but what does that tell me?’ So, we are doing a lot of work to make the platform give them alerts they can use on a daily basis, with everything else just noise.”
“Regional data is no longer enough,” he said. “You can’t look at a regional map and make a decision for a specific site. You want that local information coming straight to you to make better decisions with more confidence.”
He added the role of technology is not to replace grower knowledge, but to support it.
“It’s not replacing judgement with technology but using good technology to help inform and make better judgement,” he said. “It is experience being backed up by data and information.”
The new Agronomy Stage was one of the most popular additions to Fruit Focus 2026, with sessions packed throughout the day as growers and agronomists sought practical advice on crop performance, resilience and future production challenges.
The popularity of the Agronomy Stage also reinforced Fruit Focus’s role as a specialist technical event for the sector, bringing together research, advice, suppliers and growers in one place to share knowledge and discuss the practical steps needed to support resilient, high-performing fruit businesses.
Packaging and post-harvest innovation were also a major part of the conversation, with the event’s new Picking, Packing & Packaging Stage exploring how innovation after harvest can influence consumer buying habits, reduce waste and add value.
“There has been a natural move away from plastic to paper and to more sustainable products,” he said. “But plastic does have its place. It is cost-effective and does the job, as long as it is made out of recycled material, is fully recyclable, the consumer mindset is correct and we have the correct recycling streams in place.”
He said the berry market remains full of potential, despite climate and cost pressures.
“It is an evolving market,” he said. “The berry market has a lot of potential. It is thriving, there is a lot of investment and there is a lot of attention.”
The importance of Fruit Focus as a specialist meeting point for the sector was repeatedly highlighted by exhibitors and attendees alike.
He added that Fruit Focus gives growers and suppliers a valuable chance to come together away from the pressures of the farm.
“Growers go through a lot of challenges throughout the year,” he said. “This is an event for them to come out as a team, network, speak to colleagues from different farms and learn from each other.”
Mark Davis, who is responsible for the Botanicoir business in the UK for Agrovista, said the soft fruit sector remains one of the most dynamic areas of agriculture.
“The soft fruit sector is very, very dynamic, probably the most dynamic of all the horticulture and agricultural sectors in terms of the investment required and the technology required to produce the yields of first-class fruit that they need to produce to cover costs, let alone make a bit of money,” he said.
But he warned the sector still faces pressure from costs, labour and supermarkets.
“Input prices have gone up, labour costs have gone up, labour availability is reduced and there is pressure on price from the supermarkets,” he said.
He said the public also has a role to play in supporting growers.
“It is important that we are as self-sufficient as possible, particularly in fresh fruit and veg,” he said. “What the general public can do is make sure that wherever they can, they buy British. That will have the biggest single effect.”
Mark Harriman from Sencrop added: “The vineyard industry in the UK is growing and will continue to grow because we are getting warmer springs and warmer growing conditions. It makes the UK wine sector very interesting.”
He said the new venue was well placed to support viticulture conversations.
“It was important to be here to showcase what we do and how it helps,” he said. “We have had lots of really good conversations. Around this area there are lots of vineyards and we have lots of customers here already, so it is a prime location.”
John Davis, speaking on the Kubota UK stand with Lister Wilder, said the mood had been positive.
“We haven’t spoken to anybody who has come on and been negative,” he said. “The general mood has been good. People who have come on want to talk about the technologies and they are interested.”
He said the value of Fruit Focus lies in its specialist audience.
“If you are coming to this type of event, you are coming because you want to be here and because you are specifically looking at something or networking,” he said.