Niab Soft Fruit Day

Wednesday 3 December 2025 9.00am – 4.15pm

This year’s annual soft fruit day will be presented by Niab as a hybrid event with spaces for up to 60 people to attend in person and an opportunity for others to view on-line through live streaming. Sessions will include the latest developments in pest management in soft fruit crops, new Growing Kent & Medway funded research to improve post-harvest quality, and research to support the improvement of resource use efficiency in the soft fruit sector. A final session will be dedicated to presenting and discussing progress in the soft fruit genetic improvement network (SF GIN).

The programme

09:00 Arrive and coffee

09:25 Welcome and introduction

09:30 Growing Kent & Medway support for the horticulture, food and drink sector (Simon Barnes, Niab)

Session 1: New developments in pest management and soft fruit storage

09:45 Tackling the ever increasing threat of the large raspberry aphid (Francis Wamonje, Niab)

10:00 Deploying hoverflies for aphid control in soft fruit (Sarah Arnold, Niab)

10:15 Modern technology for thrips identification (Francis Wamonje, Niab)

10:30 A new delivery system for predatory mites release in strawberry (Damian Flynn, Saga Robotics)

10:45 Optimising the timing of predatory mite release in strawberry (Adam Walker, Niab)

11:00 Break

11:15 Parasitoids for SWD control (Michelle Fountain, Niab)

11:30 Brown marmorated stink bug surveillance in 2024 and 2025 (Francis Wamonje, Niab)

11:45 The impact of landscape diversity on pest control and pollination (Michelle Fountain, Niab)

12:00 Improving the post-harvest storage of soft fruit (Richard Colgan, University of Greenwich)

12:15 Lunch break

Session 2: Improving resource use efficiency in soft fruit

13:00 Managing activity of pollinators in protected cropping systems (Sarah Arnold, Niab)

13:15 Coir recycling – an opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint (Mat Papp-Rupar, Niab)

13:30 Maximising strawberry yield potential using vertical farming (Katia Zacharaki, Niab)

13:45 Matching nitrogen supply to demand in strawberry (Mark Else, Niab)

14:00 Break

Session 3: Soft fruit genetics to support commercial breeding programmes

14:15 Introducing The Soft Fruit Genetic Improvement Network – GIN (Xiangming Xu, Niab)

14:25 Industry perspectives (and needs) for pre-breeding genetics in soft fruit (Lucy Wilkins, Angus Soft Fruits)

14:40 Understanding water use efficiency in strawberry (Graham Dow, Niab)

14:55 Understanding nitrogen use efficiency in blueberry (Susan McCallum, the James Hutton Institute)

15:10 Resistance to large raspberry aphid (Andrew Gladman, ADAS and Feli Fernandez, Niab)

15:25 Genetics of resistance to powdery mildew in strawberry (Samantha Lynn, CTP Student)

15:40 Industry engagement (Rob Hancock, the James Hutton Institute)

15:55 Discussion (Xiangming Xu)

16:15 Close