Ribena harvests first crop of climate-change resilient blackcurrants

After three years in mother nature’s hands, Ribena’s new climate-resilient blackcurrants are now ripe for picking

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Named ‘Ben Lawers’ - our blackcurrant varieties are always named after Scottish mountains - the new variety is the fruit of a longstanding partnership and labour of love between Lucozade Ribena Suntory and leading agronomy research centre; The James Hutton Institute.

This year’s harvest sees Ribena and our growers reaping the rewards as 20 years of research comes to fruition. Thanks to determined, painstaking work, this breed of blackcurrant is now ready for cropping and juicing on a large scale to produce that classic Ribena taste. Harvest is always the most exciting time of the year but this time around it promises to be doubly rewarding. This year’s weather has demonstrated why we need to be on the front-foot in adapting to a changing climate.

Harriet Prosser, Agronomist at SBF GB&I

The culmination of 20 years of research, 75,000 bushes of the Ben Lawers blackcurrants are fruiting for the first time this year as shown at Whittern Farms in Herefordshire, home to 4th-generation blackcurrant grower, Jo Hilditch

We have experienced some challenging weather conditions this year after a very warm winter and the driest May on record. Thankfully, the June showers followed by some warm weather has helped all our blackcurrant breeds and we are looking forward to a lovely sweet crop that will deliver the distinctive taste Ribena fans know and love.