Large Royal Gala apples
"Volumes are down, but there are pockets of growers who are picking heavier than initially forecast and there are some quality problems with some varieties. In some orchards for example we have seen a fairly high number of elongated seedless Braeburn." according to Sam Trebbick from Orchard World.
The UK supermarkets have gone down the path of selling apples in six packs which is making it a challenge to pack the bigger fruit into pre-sized packaging.
"Clearly some of the varieties such as Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Pink Lady are all imported to fulfil our programmes," explains Sam. "But they have the same problem with fruit size on the continent as we do here and early season small fruit is limited. I expect this to continue through the season, so smaller fruit will probably attract higher prices because everyone is chasing the same fruit." The harvest is pretty well through and growers are currently picking Braeburn, this will be finished by the end of next week. All the early season varieties are picked, as are Cox and Gala.
OrchardWorld did some export last year and Sam said there may be some options later this season in the Middle East and Europe for some of the larger sizes.
Photo: Frost ring damage earlier in the year (June).
Labour
There has been a lot in the news about the effect of Brexit on the labour supply to the UK market and Sam confirms that some growers have found acquiring labour challenging. "A couple of our growers have commented on how demographics have changed over the last few years. It used to be the young pickers who came to take the money home, now they are saying it is hard to get the younger people in and its also more difficult to attract people with the right skills."
For more information:
Sam Trebbick
OrchardWorld
Tel: +44 1206 848628
Email: sam.trebbick@orchardworld.co.uk
www.poupartproduce.co.uk