There’s nothing like the end of a successful hard day’s work – a feeling many British topfruit growers will currently recognise as a season characterised by strong sales and good prices draws to a close.

Crop volumes were up, according to suppliers, and growing conditions throughout the season were largely beneficial, despite some localised water shortages and fruit size variance.

At retail, topfruit sales were steady with value up 1.9 per cent and volumes dipping slightly by 1.1 per cent, according to Kantar Worldpanel figures for the 52 weeks to 26 February 2017. On closer inspection, value rises were prompted by price increases of 3.9 per cent, while the volume decline was primarily down to a decrease in apples (-2.7 per cent), with pears in growth (+4.8 per cent), according to Kantar analysts.

“Overall, topfruit sales are marginally ahead of last year at around three to four per cent up,” says managing director of Adrian Scripps, James Simpson. “Generally it’s been a very good season – demand has been strong, and prices have been good. We had a colder winter than usual – we record the number of chill units and there were more than last year, which bodes well.”

Topfruit has had good support this season from Tesco and Morrisons in particular, according to Simpson, as well as growing volumes to the discounters, although he says support from certain other retailers was “disappointing”.

Alan Griffiths, Orchard World UK procurement manager, says the company has had a “very successful UK season”, where overall crop volume was slightly higher than the previous season. “Apples and pears have both performed extremely well, and volume uptake during the entire season has sustained a strong, consistent momentum, especially in the initial four months of the season, where historically we see a lull from mid-November and through December,” he says.

The growing season was largely fine, reports Griffiths, although there was a lack of rain in early September, meaning that any orchards without irrigation produced a higher amount of smaller-sized fruit.

Carol Ford, commercial director at AC Goatham, says the Kent-based grower saw some localised weather conditions, including a 12-week drought that was “challenging” but manageable through irrigation. “The quality has been superb, storage has been excellent and our yields were very good so we are where we would hope to be at this stage,” she says. Ford notes ripe and ready Conference pears is a trend of interest, and says “encouraging a new, younger market into British Conference pears through ripe and ready is one of our priorities for the future.”

At Worldwide Fruit, CEO Steve Maxwell says sales were strong but going forward growers need to see some increase in net returns to reflect cost pressures. “Average fruit size was larger this year,” he says, adding that now so many packs are count-, rather than weight-based, this can lead to increased “weight giveaway”.

Gala continues to dominate UK apple sales, says Griffiths, with the ever-increasing popularity of Pink Lady as the primary competitor. “However, a strong British apple campaign in the forthcoming season may help the industry reach a wider range of consumers and aid further interest,” he adds. Kanzi demand continues to grow among consumers, according to Simpson, who says the biggest difficulty is getting the brand onto retail shelves as a relatively new variety.

With both New Zealand and South Africa predicting topfruit export increases and favourable conditions, topfruit is likely to continue its healthy performance into the southern hemisphere season.

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