The British Protected Ornamentals Association has announced an action packed two day event including marketing and technical seminars, as well as the Association’s AGM. The 2012 BPOA AGM and Conference will be held at the Hellidon Lakes Hotel near Daventry on 7-8 February. They are taking bookings now, and you can find more details and booking forms by clicking here.

A meeting of growers, retailers and marketing agents and trade press has been called on Tuesday 24 January at East Malling Research Conference Centre to develop a marketing action plan ahead of the 2012 English plum and cherry season.

As was widely reported in the media last summer, many growers were very disappointed with sales and returns from English plums during the 2011 season. The media attention did result in retailers stocking more British plums, but not in time to stop many growers leaving fruit to rot, with plans to grub up their plum orchards as a result.

At a time when the English crop is relatively small and there is increasing demand for locally grown supplies of fresh produce, there is a huge lost opportunity here for the English industry.

The NFU will be attending the meeting and is looking forward to a full and frank debate about what’s going wrong currently and the measures that can be put in place to ensure a more strategic and co-ordinated approach to marketing the English crop in future. The meeting is a unique opportunity for all those involved in the stone fruit sector to share ideas and proposals for increasing the proportion of English plums on the supermarket shelves during the English season. Issues such as communication and more accurate forecasting will also be addressed. The NFU is keen to see measures put in place that prevent the events of 2011 being repeated, and looks forward to a constructive session. 

If you are interested in attending this event, please contact horticulture@nfu.org.uk to find out more details.