The contraction of the harvest transforms climate adaptation into a strategic question for the supply chain. The structure, timing, and objectives of the funded program remain to be defined. Ribena invests in making the plants more capable of resisting stress.

According to the sole available source, The Guardian, funds will help black currants tolerate extreme weather conditions better. The initiative intervenes while the harvest is already underway and production expected to suffer from an adverse season where opposing meteorological problems occurred. Operations interest main British areas dedicated to this cultivation, including East Anglia, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Kent, and Scotland.

Harvest completion is predicted for early August. Stated by The Guardian, there is a decrease of about one tenth compared to national average yield of 10,000 tons, but final data may be determined solely at the end of the campaign. Fading is not attributed to a single event.

Farmers cited by The Guardian describe a sequence starting with one of the most recent rainy winters ever recorded in some parts of the UK. Excess precipitation has hindered pruning and pest control, slowing down necessary work on plant management before productive phase. In spring, localized frost and grandinates have added new pressures on crops.

Plants arrived at summer after first part of year characterized by very wet land, delays in agricultural activities, and locally damaging phenomena. Vulnerability of crop comes according to reconstruction of source from accumulation of these factors over several phases of the season. With June and July, difficulties changed.

Calorific waves caused burns and premature fall of some berries. In many areas, high temperature was accompanied by lack of rain, affecting fruit dimensions as well. The Guardian reports that few precipitations are expected before harvest ends, reducing possibility of improvement in last weeks.

Program of £200,000 represents response to risk directly concerning continuity of raw material. Communicated objective is making plants more capable of resisting stress, but source does not specify how resources will be distributed. No duration of project, organisms involved in research, characteristics of varieties developed or calendar for their eventual introduction into British agricole companies specified.

Strategic plan signals intention to intervene production rather than limit self to managing effects of single adverse year. For brand depending on black currant, holding cultivation constitutes element of supply chain security. However, news does not contain information on commercial consequences of decrease production, costs for filiera or quantities used directly by Ribena.

Moreover, effects of elevated temperatures do not result uniform throughout entire compartment of small fruits. According to producers cited by The Guardian, mirtilli and grape benefit from greater heat. Berries present however fragile condition: plants surriscaldate might suffer from stress leading to prolonging availability of fruits until autumn.

Comparison shows same weather conditions can create advantages for some productions and problems for others. Case of black currant has subjected plants first to excessive humidity then to high temperature and drought. Management of risk therefore concerns not only resistance to higher temperatures but also ability of crops to handle marked oscillations within few months.