Scotland is a key contributor to the UK’s soft fruit industry, particularly known for its high-quality strawberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants. While a wide range of pest and disease risk information already exists at UK level for this sector, this information may not be sufficiently adapted to the specific production systems, environmental conditions, and biosecurity pathways relevant to Scottish soft fruit production. As a result, growers, advisors, and operational stakeholders can find it difficult to interpret and apply existing guidance to identify priority risks and take preventative action.

This project will address this gap by designing a clear and accessible Pest and Disease Risk Analysis (PDRA) methodology that can be readily applied by stakeholders across the soft fruit industry. The framework will integrate horizon scanning for current and emerging pest threats, assessment of production practices and biosecurity vulnerabilities, and alignment with integrated pest management (IPM) principles. The framework will be universally applicable to several crops in all sectors, but a sector-specific case study will be used to demonstrate the methodology in practice, providing a worked example that can be adapted by users in different operational contexts.

By translating technical pest risk data into a practical decision-support tool, the project aims to strengthen preventative biosecurity, improve consistency in risk assessment, and enhance the capacity of the Scottish soft fruit sector to identify, prioritise, and manage pest and disease threats effectively.

Image credit: Bunch of Strawberries by ZaiB Tse on Unsplash