Plum growers in England are picking the first fruit of what is promising to be a high-quality crop this season, boosted by a cold winter and followed by a good conditions for blossom and fruit set.
As a result, some orchards have been hand-thinned to ensure that fruit reaches preferred commercial sizes, which has the added benefit of removing the heavy weight of immature fruit that threatened to damage trees.
'Our growers began harvesting Opals, Reeves, Avalon and Jubilee from mid-July,' said Dean Tunbridge, commercial director of the topfruit and stone fruit marketing group Norman Collett. 'Quality and size so far have been excellent with high brix levels which meant the fruit really tasted like summer plums and were able to compete with European imports.'
Mr Tunbridge added that said that the group had already been filling early variety programmes with all its major supermarket customers, with the stage now set for the Victoria (Cox's Orange Pippin), the industry's most popular variety.
The first batch of the variety will become available around 10 August, according to Mr Tunbridge, and will then be joined by Marjorie Seedlings around 25 August.
'Victorias represent the main variety,' he said. 'Our retail customers recognise its importance as a special seasonal fruit which is traditionally very close to consumers' hearts.'
Mr Tunbridge said that Norman Collett is expecting to market around 500 tonnes of all varieties this season, at least four times the volume of 2008.
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