Sustainability & Innovation
Environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially just.
From harnessing solar energy and creating wildlife corridors that support the pollination of our fruit, to rainwater harvesting, we continually strive to leave a positive imprint on our surrounding environment.
We encourage nature and wildlife to prosper alongside our farming activities. In doing so, we’re consciously protecting nature so that it continues to thrive for generations to come.
innovation
Innovation is at the very heart of everything we do at New Forest Fruit while keeping nature and the environment at the forefront of all our decision-making.
Food Waste
- Some waste fruit gets sent to Scotland, where it gets made into jams and purées.
- In 2020, New Forest Fruit Snacks were born: delicious and nutritious snacks, which result in a reduction of food waste at the same time!
- The fruit snacks are pulse dried strawberries so retain the same size and nutrition of the original fruit!
- When placed into liquid, the snack rehydrates, becoming a fresh piece of fruit again!
- Grown, pulse dried and packaged on site means no negative carbon footprint either!
Food waste
Robotics
The use of cutting edge robotic and AI technology is important in all that we do, not only for the future of our company, but also for the future of farming overall.
- We work tirelessly to look at how technology can enhance and improve the quality of our produce.
- We were one of the first to trial the NGS (New Growing System) rotating tabletop growing systems in the U.K., resulting in a dramatic increase in productivity.
- Tortuga robots support us with our strawberry and grape harvesting as well as crop harvesting estimates with the use of AI.
- Thanks to the assistance of OneThird, we use AI to predict the shelf-life of our produce.
- The Saga thorvald robot helps with UV treatment for mildew control, without the need for pesticide resulting in an overall reduction of chemical input.
ROBOTICS
biological control
- Integrated Farm Management (IFM) is a holistic approach to farming that enhances crop health, while at the same time reducing our environmental impact, enabling a whole farm approach.
- A key aspect of IFM is ‘biological control’ which helps minimise our reliance on chemicals.
- At New Forest Fruit, we regularly release natural predators to control pests supporting a more diverse ecosystem, which not only protects crops but also encourages natural biodiversity, creating a balanced and resilient agricultural environment.
- By combining the diverse methods of IFM on our farm and integrating traditional methods with modern technology, we’re able to promote healthier soil and support plants and wildlife to thrive, which all contributes to increased sustainable farming practices.
biological
control
wildlife
We have bee hotels, bat boxes, bird boxes and beetle banks around our sites and take part in an annual baseline biodiversity study, to ensure that wildlife continues to flourish on our sites.
The farm, which is a LEAF demonstration farm, also has a vast number of hedgerows that provide a habitat for a variety of species, wildlife corridors to link them up and designated conservation areas.
Any unused land around the site’s reservoirs has been planted with fruit trees to encourage more wildlife, and as part of a biodiversity project, we laid an extra 400m of hedge in 2023 using traditional methods.
water
Water is crucial to our business, and with the unpredictable weather patterns, its availability is increasingly challenging. With this in mind, we built two reservoirs for rainwater harvesting and have identified opportunities to improve water quality, with simple but effective physical filtration as well as a tunnel system that hydraulically takes the water from the roof, back into the reservoir.
We have put rainwater harvesting at the heart of the design of our most recently completed production facility which, in conjunction with the two reservoirs, means we will be able to rely less on abstraction during drier months of the year, having had already captured and stored more of the irrigation water during times of abundance.
