The NFU has blasted supermarkets for favouring imported apples over English.
The growers' union claims cheap imports are displacing English fruit on shelves at the peak of the English season, citing research from NFU South East showing that many stores are selling a 'bewildering array of apple product lines, with large quantities of imported apples on sale during the English season.'
NFU South East regional director William White, who will have the chance to back up his claims when he addresses the industry at the National Fruit Show in Kent on Wednesday (15 October), argued that retailers should be 'making a virtue of our quality home-grown English apples' during the season.
'Instead, far too much space is being given over to imported fruit, including southern hemisphere fruit,' he claimed. 'We recognise there is unprecedented competition between retailers and the Russian trade ban on EU produce has resulted in the market being flooded with apples.
'But retailers have little excuse for selecting imports at this stage in the English apple season, especially when our own apples are so good this year.”
White argued that the stance was undermining the security of the English apple supply base. 'We hear our growers are being left with unsold product this year – they desperately need fruit sales now as they’re under real pressure with cash flow,' he said. 'It is essential that growers receive the right signals from the supply chain at the right time if they are to grow their businesses and reinvest for the future.”
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