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Purple haze: making Ribena

Ribena is one of the most popular brands in the UK. But how is it produced?

Ninety-five per cent of the total blackcurrant crop in the UK is processed into Ribena.  And that‘s a lot of fruit. It has been estimated that if all the 13 billion blackcurrants harvested for Ribena in the UK were laid end to end they would go around the world three times, though why anyone would actually want to do this remains a mystery.

Watching the weather

Harvest starts in July and lasts for about eight weeks. Weather conditions are crucial. "We want a frost-free spring, good steady rain in May and June and, of course, a sunny harvesting season to ensure a good crop", explains Mike Dunsire, who is in charge of finding the raw materials for GlaxoSmithKline’s nutritional products.

One way to cope with difficult weather patterns is to develop different crop varieties and GSK is supporting work at the Scottish Crop Research Institute to develop more types of blackcurrant. Last year (2007) we completed a three year trial of a new variety, Ben Vane, that can survive the change in weather patterns. The first commercial crop has just been harvested from a farm in Gloucestershire.

Altogether about 5000 blackcurrant acres are harvested from 63 farms and 45 different growers, many of whom have been in the business for generations. "Organising the harvesting, the transportation and the lorry movements is quite a challenge," says Mike. "We now get more fruit from our 45 growers than we did from 120."

"Tickling" the berries

Pickers have now given way to harvesters, but harvesters with a difference.  Blackcurrant harvesters do not cut the berries off the bush – they “tickle” them off.

Speed is crucial. Blackcurrants are not long lasting and if they are to be of optimum quality then they must be harvested, delivered and pressed within 24 hours. This means that the furthest they can travel for processing is 300 miles. This too poses challenges for the Ribena team as Mike points out: "During the season we estimate that we coordinate about 600 different lorry movements from 300 to 30 miles away."

A lot of fruit

Last year GSK processed nearly 12,000 tonnes of blackcurrants which produced nearly two million litres of concentrate – enough for over one billion servings of Ribena. 

After extraction, the concentrate is then pumped into tankers and taken to the Ribena plant at Coleford, Gloucestershire in the UK, where it is held in tanks beneath the factory and is used as needed throughout the year.

Altogether only about 1000 people are involved from growing the fruit to producing the squeezed blackcurrant juice.

The whole process works very efficiently but that does not mean that improvements are not being sought.  Currently effort is going into sourcing each individual bottle of Ribena. Now, the contents of each bottle can be traced to one of six farms. GSK is, however, looking at a new level of traceability for consumers, which would link each bottle back to an individual farm, rather like a fine French wine, but costing considerably less.

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