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Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops

Low-cost robots which can harvest and package strawberries in a matter of seconds have been trialled in Essex as part of ambitious plans to tackle a labour shortage in the industry.

Rising costs and retail pressures hit farms with berry growers concerned for the future