Cold, wet spring hits Suffolk's Ribena blackcurrant harvest

The weather conditions have affected pollination - meaning fewer fruit. The plants were also stressed by last year's scorching heatwave.

Andrew Youngman and son Edward grow their blackcurrant crop exclusively for drinks brand Ribena - but knew yields would take a hit because of the unfavourable conditions earlier this year. Their apple crop has been badly affected, although the pears have stood up better.

The wet weather has also meant a challenging harvest. The Youngmans, based at Red House Farm, Charsfield, near Woodbridge, are the fourth and fifth generation to farm in the village and the family has been growing the crop for about 80 years.

The blackcurrant harvest finished on Tuesday (August 1). At one time picking was all done by hand. Fifty years ago, mechanisation was introduced and it was done on a part-mechanised, part hand-picked basis for another 10 years. Now a sturdy SFM Straddle harvester does the job.

Last year was a very different story for the crop. The Youngmans struggled to get berries off the bushes fast enough because of the intense heat.

"We are down on last year's harvest," said Andrew. "We are about 15% down on our five year average.

"I think it's a carry-over from the stress they were under last year from the very hot weather and the spring this year was awful because it was very wet."

But considering the adverse conditions, the plants did remarkably well, he said - much better than he expected.

Even after bringing in harvest last year, the Youngmans were irrigating their berry bushes to ensure their survival.

"The spring does make a massive difference because if you don't get the pollination in the spring you don't get the crop," said Andrew.

They grow around 50ha of blackcurrant bushes but not all are cropping every year. 

This July was the farm's fifth or sixth wettest since 1910 with about 106mm of rain compared to just 1.4mm last year. Average daily temperatures in 2022 were 25C and this year 21C.

These factors and the hangover from last year's scorcher meant their expectations for the crop were lower anyway.

"We grow eight different varieties and the idea of that is they stagger the harvest - we don't want them all ripening at the same time," explained Ed.

As a result, harvest is staggered over two and a half weeks. This year they expect to have brought in about 215 to 220t - against a goal of about 250t.

The crop is planted into a ploughed field as sticks and takes three years to mature enough to provide a crop. There are about 10,000/ha.

The bush's lifespan can be anything from eight to 25 years depending on the variety. Hoeing is a labour-intensive activities on the farm as with very few herbicides available to use they need to hand weed between the plants.

Andrew's grandfather, Hugh Youngman, started growing blackcurrants and his son, Tony - Andrew's father - continued with the crop. The first generation was James Youngman, who came from Maidstone in Kent in 1877 to Charsfield Hall.

The family no longer owns the hall, but they do own the land surrounding it. Hugh bought more farmland in 1912 and the family now farms about 480 acres of its own land and a total of 850 acres including the four other farms it contract farms for under share farming agreements.

Although the family grows a lot less top fruit than it used to - it produces Charsfield apple and pear juices under the Red House Farm brand - the fruit side accounts for about half the business alongside the arable operation.

Ed is heavily involved in the farm's contract business, Magpie Farm Services. It was started by Andrew and a neighbouring farmer, Nigel Western of Monewden, who together ran it for about 20 years.

Nigel wanted to exit it, and this coincided with Ed, now 33, wanting to return to the farm. Ed's younger sister, Alice 31, is an educational psychologist and his brother, David, 29, now lives in Australia and works in e-training.

Although he didn't encourage Ed to go into farming, Andrew is very pleased that he has.  "I'm very, very happy that he's back. He's made a big impact on the farm already," he said.

Ed - who studied agriculture at Newcastle University, added: "I was working elsewhere at the time and that was a good opportunity for me. I was working for a neighbouring farm for five or six years."

On the arable side, it has been a challenging year with input costs so high. Their fertiliser costs alone have trebled and while diesel prices have now come down other costs - including labour - are still a heavy burden. The farm employs two workers - one of whom also supports the Magpie side. They also bring in casual labour.

The Youngmans are the only Ribena growers in Suffolk but there are others in Norfolk and one in Essex. The number of commercial blackcurrant growers in the region has dwindled over time for different reasons.

"It's a good crop for us to grow - we have been doing it for a long time. It's not as profitable as it used to be but it's still worth our while," said Andrew.

The land lies in a valley on south-facing slopes with sandy clay land which is quite heavy and retains moisture. The fields also have irrigation from a reservoir and borehole so all in all, the farm is well set up to grow fruit.

That income in supplemented by Magpie, which is growing wheat, oilseed rape, winter naked oats, winter beans and spring barley this year. The Youngmans' own farm is growing all these crops apart from the barley. 

They direct drill the majority of crops - which helps with costs but is also a boon for soil health. Wildlife on the farm is also thriving under a mid-tier Environmental Stewardship scheme - and Ribena's own stewardship scheme - with song birds, hares, turtle doves, barn owls, tawny owls, little owls and kingfishers among the species found.