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In a 26-acre greenhouse in Lincolnshire, a robot moves slowly through a long line of strawberry plants, picking the ripe red fruit to send to supermarkets. This is the latest venture from James Dyson, one of the UK's richest businessmen, and now the UK's largest commercial farmer.
Dyson's efforts to produce premium fruit and offer British strawberries for sale at Christmas are distinctively ambitious. The inventor who revolutionized vacuum cleaners wants to do the same in gardening, using the technology to create premium products bearing his name.
It's hard enough to make a Dyson electric fan stand out in the global market, but the Strawberry has another level of difficulty. Fruit is mostly sold by weight or under supermarket brands in the UK, with growers appearing on packs in small print at best. If it looks good and tastes sweet, that's enough for most shoppers.
He supported Dyson British farmers' protests Against changes in inheritance tax, which could He makes His farming estate is liable for a death charge of £120m. He insists that reducing tax liability was not his motivation for purchasing 36,000 acres of farmland, nor for moving his company's headquarters to Singapore in 2019.
But whatever his approach to taxation, Dyson has brought some much-needed fresh ideas to how farms operate in the UK, investing £140m in improving and developing his farms since 2013. He grows strawberries year-round in a greenhouse It is heated and lit by generators running on electricity. Biogas from other crops.
His farm in Lincolnshire is something of a laboratory, as I saw when I toured it recently. Its trial of strawberry-picking robots by Dogtooth, a start-up in Cambridgeshire, is among several to produce fruit more efficiently. The plants mature in a combination of natural and artificial light, and diseases and pests are treated with automated devices.
This investment will only pay off if consumers accept that it is worth paying more for a packet of Dyson strawberries than for the berries imported from Spain or Morocco that typically fill supermarkets in the winter. They need to taste good and for their British origin to be recognized and appreciated.
Dyson is making some progress on branding. His strawberries were initially sold by J Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer under their own distinct brands, but the Dyson name became more prominent. M&S's latest packaging features the union flag and Dyson Farming branding.
Shoppers have become accustomed to the luxury of world-class supply, especially in the off-season. British farms last year produced less than 20 per cent of the fruit bought in the UK by value, with more than £4 billion imported. Local berry production is on the rise, but UK growers face stiff competition.
International companies have also made inroads in the UK. Berry Gardens, a large UK soft fruit retailer, has been owned since 2022 by California-based Driscolls, the world's largest berry grower and marketer. Chilean Agroperiz took full control of UK-based Berry World Group in September.
Driscoll's has extensive branding experience, having sold berries to its growers through US supermarkets in its own packaging since the 1990s. It launched its brand in the UK last September, and Asda and Morrisons have begun stocking its products: Dyson isn't the only one who wants shoppers to search for its name.
Perhaps Dyson should be intimidated by the scale of the challenge he faces. His farm in Lincolnshire produces 1,200 tonnes of strawberries a year, but that is small compared to the 150,000 tonnes of berries that Agroberries produces in 30 countries, not to mention Driscoll's strong network.
Nor, strictly speaking, are these strawberries his. Driscoll's breeds and patents its own varieties, but Dyson produces a variety in the UK called Malling Centenary. This type of strawberry is produced at the East Malling Research Center in Kent, whose strawberry portfolio was acquired by German company Bayer last year. Yes, Dyson's berries are grown in a unique way, but they are not the fruits of his invention.
But it would be unnatural for Dyson to give up gardening, and I hope he doesn't. He has conquered the world before with his own technology, and has a strong brand and large capital, as well as a fighting spirit. If the UK's biggest grower can't bring his British strawberries to a higher price, it doesn't bode well for others.
He should expand further and start raising strawberries that he can truly call his own. He must also convince not just supermarkets, but British consumers that the soft fruit really comes from Lincolnshire at Christmas. But who said farming in the UK was easy?
