English top-fruit will benefit this season from a promotion in Co-op stores offering money-off vouchers for English fruit in packs of French Gala.

The move effectively encourages consumers to switch allegiance to home-grown fruit, and is a breakthrough for promotional body English Apples & Pears which has a change of focus for this season.

The organisation is taking steps to bring greater cohesion to the industry by collating and sharing information on stocks of the major varieties every two weeks throughout the season as well as pr activities and non-tailor-made promotion. "The promotion committee has been reformed on the basis that tailor-made promotions with the retailers are increasingly being organised by individual marketing organisation," explained EAP's Adrian Barlow. "It is therefore now being called the top-fruit information group and the great benefit of the group is that it provides an opportunity for the overall state of the market to be considered."

Barlow also told freshinfo that prospects for the crop are extremely good following a long hot summer which has boosted fruit sugar levels to record highs.

"The weather in April and May was not good and several orchards were damaged by frost," said Barlow. "There was a lot of concern for the crop in the industry, but the warmth and sunshine over the summer have led to a good recovery overall and an important feature are the highest ever sugars."

He also reported that although the season is running some seven to 10 days behind last year, harvesting is well ahead of schedule compared to two years ago when an excellent quality and volume year was dogged by poor sales planning and marketing.

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Barlow is forecasting an overall Cox crop of some 45,000 tonnes, an increase of some 53 per cent on last year and a 26 per cent increase in the Gala crop as new orchards continue to come on stream. He also reported an expected increase in the Braeburn crop to 1,000t and a Conference pear crop in line with last year's volumes.

"We are going to see fantastic support and promotion from retailers this year," he said. "And bearing in mind that there is no southern hemisphere overhang at the start of the season, EU volumes are down generally and we have excellent taste and volume in the crop, this should be a really good season for English growers with really good returns," concluded Barlow.

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