Article taken from The Fruit Grower, June 2018.
Agrovista has signed up for a further three-year term as a major sponsor of the National Fruit Show.
The agreement, which starts in 2019, will help support one of the main champions of UK fruit production through a period that could prove challenging for the sector and agriculture in general. Mark Davies, commercial head of fruit at Agrovista, said: ""The National Fruit Show is a key flag-flier for the fruit industry and all who work within it. High-level politicians and representatives from industry bodies often visit the Show, as well as some very important buyers and sellers of fruit, underlining the importance of the event. In addition, the spectacle and quality of the fruit display will be photographed and filmed for use across all media. It will also be displayed to the public at various locations around the country after the event. This underlines the Show's invaluable role in highlighting all that is good about UK fruit, particularly its education activities, where thousands of young people are being introduced to the benefits of UK-grown fruit.""
Paul Bennett, Agrovista's technical head of fruit, said: ""The Show is unique, as the event is centred on produce, and that is what the Agrovista fruit business is all about. We view the Show as the natural place to launch the latest developments to UK growers, at a time of year when most have time to start to consider plans for the following season. For all these reasons it was an easy decision to agree to act as one of the main Show sponsors for a further three years, helping to do our bit to ensure the ongoing success of the Show in what could potentially be a challenging few years for agriculture.""
Sarah Calcutt, chair of the Marden Fruit Show Society, that runs the event, welcomed Agrovista's decision to renew its sponsorship. ""We are delighted with Agrovista's ongoing support for such an important business-to-business event," she said. ""Agrovista, along with our other main sponsors, has helped drive the Show forward to become the key event it is today.
Over the past eight years the Show has doubled in size and is now managed with consistency and professionalism, thanks largely to sponsorship receipts. ""In addition, the involvement of large professional
companies in the Show has raised the bar when it comes to exhibits. It has become a true showcase for our sector, as well providing growers with an
excellent opportunity for knowledge transfer and networking.""
Agrovista's fruit business, which works across all fruit sectors, is held in high regard, thanks to its close and effective team that provides sound, pragmatic, technical advice, backed up by the adoption of new technologies where appropriate, and serviced by a nationwide logistics network. Agrovista's team of nine specialist fruit agronomists work hard to ensure that growers maximise their yield of Class 1 fruit, whilst being mindful of the economic, legislative and environmental pressures under which growers operate.
Illustrating its leading position in the market, the Agrovista fruit team has recently pioneered several new products and techniques to growers, including:
- the large-scale use of biological controls with many soft fruit growers
- the use of compressed 100% coir substrate for berry and cane fruits, along with substrate systems to suit both tunnel-grown and glasshouse-grown crops. Together with partners, Botanicoir, the company has developed a highperforming 'mark 3' blend of coir substrate - ""Precision Plus Ultra""
- Growers Choice Interactive, Agrovista's own pest and disease modelling service, that is the most accurate available, ensuring that growers gain maximum return and benefit from their crop protection investment
- the latest pheromone disruption technology. With BASF, Agrovista introduced RAK 3+4 for the control of codling moth the application of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi at tree planting, that is now commonplace on farms where Agrovista is advising.