The Matthew Mack Award is one of three prestigious triennial awards presented to deserving individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution to our industry. The Award was founded in 1988 and is given triennially to an individual for distinguished achievements in education, training, and innovation within the fruit industry.
This year, at the Annual Banquet, Renter Warden Chris Newenham announced that the recipient of the 2024 Matthew Mack Award is Richard Harnden and delivered the following citation.
Richard started his career as a Trials Officer with East Kent Packers Ltd. He then joined his father on the family farm near Hythe and began to show his love of innovation and improvement by planting and cropping strawberries at the farm as a specialist long-season crop. To market his crop, he joined the Kentish Garden Ltd co-operative as a member, starting a long and fruitful association with the organisation.
Richard then went on to help run the UK’s largest strawberry plant propagation business owned by Bill Cragg, where he developed an extensive knowledge and experience of the propagation industry. Later, in conjunction with two fellow growers, he established a strawberry plant propagation business, Commercial Fruit Plants Ltd, in the late 1980s.
In the Autumn of 1995, Richard joined the senior management team at Kentish Garden Marketing Ltd, initially as the Technical Executive, and later held the role of Technical Director of the rebranded KG Fruits Ltd. In 2011, he moved to the role of Director of Research at Berry Gardens Ltd, helping to visualise and deliver huge change and innovation through projects on breeding, new pest and disease controls, propagation, production techniques—especially in respect of irrigation management, robotics and automation—and in post-harvest treatments. In short, Richard has been a key industry figure and has been instrumental in helping growers to create the modern, world-leading berry industry that we have in the UK today.
In addition, Richard has provided support and advice for breeding programmes as well as liaising with and supporting fruit researchers at NIAB, the James Hutton Institute, a number of UK universities and research institutes, and breeding programmes around the world—not only to develop collaborative research projects, but to keep abreast of the latest technical developments that could be adopted by industry.
However, perhaps his greatest achievement, and one which the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers is also proud to support, has been the recognition that many of our established fruit researchers were nearing the end of their working careers and were not being replaced by new or younger scientists. Acting on this realisation, in conjunction with NIAB, Richard set up the Collaborative Training Partnership for Fruit Crop Research. Funded jointly by BBSRC, AHDB, and industry, it has now successfully trained five cohorts of students and prepared them for a life in fruit research, with many graduates already working in our industry. Without Richard’s vision and support, this initiative would never have been achieved.
Richard has always been determined to raise the standards and abilities of the whole industry rather than for just a select few.
Richard, on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, it gives us great pleasure to present you with the Matthew Mack Award for 2024.
