Leading English apple marketer Worldwide Fruit expects to see its overall apple volumes increase by 10 per cent this year, thanks to favourable weather over recent months.
The expected harvest, which if achieved will mark a recovery from the disappointing 2008 campaign, will be concentrated principally on the Gala and Blackburn varieties, although Worldwide Fruit-marketed Jazz apples are fast emerging as an important product.
According to Worldwide Fruit’s marketing manager, Steve Maxwell, this improved crop will go some way towards helping realise the company’s long-term aim of substituting apple imports with UK-grown products.
Although he conceded that the English apple industry is growing fewer varieties at the present time, Mr Maxwell argued that this trend would be more than compensated for by a sector that was more focused and was delivering greater volumes.
Grower Paul Mansfield, who manages Worldwide Fruit’s largest producer Mansfields, said that the trend towards the production of more UK-grown apples has been evident over the last decade, as English products gradually take market share from imported fruit.
“Over the last 10 years, the move towards English apples replacing imports has been happening – compared with 1998, we are producing three times the amount of apples and we’ve been able to do that by displacing imports,” he said.
Mansfields itself expects to produce 15 per cent more topfruit this season, principally thanks to new orchards coming into production. Overall, Mr Mansfield said the company, which farms 1,214ha near Canterbury, Kent, will harvest around 17,500 tonnes of apples and pears this season, with the Braeburn, Cox and Gala varieties accounting for the majority of the crop.
However, Mr Mansfield said that newer varieties, such as Envy and particularly Jazz, are becoming increasingly important and are likely to take greater amounts of shelf space from established varieties over the coming years.
The grower’s own volumes of the varieties will be further supplemented in the near future as Mansfields plans to plant 35,000 Jazz trees and 15,000 Envy trees at its Canterbury site next year.
“These are varieties that suit the climate here, they eat very well and they have good repeat sales,” added Mr Mansfield.
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