The first English apples of the year, Discovery, were picked in Kent last week and have gone on sale at Tesco.
Growers started picking and packing their apples last week and will transported them to local Tesco stores last Saturday, this week stores nationwide have begun to receive English apples.
Tesco apple buyer David Croxson said: “There is a lot of excitement in the English apple industry in anticipation of the current crop especially as the growing conditions have been so good.
“The harshest winter since the late 1970s may have been bad news for many of us but it was great for apple growers as the prolonged cold meant that the trees could hibernate and rest.
“We are hoping that the great flavour will lead to a larger than normal demand from shoppers and in turn result in record orders for British growers.”
The first crop of Discovery apples also hit branches of Waitrose this week and the retailer is to add to its apple offer with the introduction of Kanzi this season.
Waitrose buyer David Mitchell said: “Our Discovery apples have looked good for the last couple of weeks but we like to wait until the sugars have developed allowing Waitrose customers the best tasting apples - we never compromise on taste.”
Dr Mark Else, team leader for environmental physiology at East Malling Research, said: “The long, cold winter we have just had amply fulfilled the chilling requirement needed for apple trees, ensuring good flower production this spring and in turn helping produce high quality fruit.
“There are many benefits of a good blossom - better quality fruit with all the blossoms opening up in a short period of time generally leading to improved pollination.
“There is another great benefit of extreme cold weather - many pests are not prepared for the cold weather and a winter such as the last one will have reduced populations of fruit tree pests as well as removing a proportion of the over-wintering stages of pathogens.”
Volume predictions for English apples this year are good and are expected to reach the same level as last year which was 85,610 tonnes of top class one fruit.
Tesco has more than 50 dedicated Kent growers who supply the supermarket with apples as well as pears through Tesco’s Paddock Wood based apple supplier Norman Collett.
Sarah Calcutt, business development manager at Norman Collett added: “With alternating days of sunshine and showers in the spring and summer the prospects for some wonderful apples are really good.
“The long slow growing period is really good for developing great flavours and a nice bit of rain makes for better juicy fruit.”
All of Tesco’s Kent growers will send-out an estimated five million Discovery apples over the next four weeks until the arrival of Worcester in late August.
The retailer will also receive spartan, cox and gala apples as well as conference and comice pears from the region this season.
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