UK firm to double top fruit production
A C Goatham & Son, who produce one in every six British apples now sold in Britain, has reinvested £30 million throughout it’s business over the last seven years, as part of a long term strategy to ensure it can grow to meet the future needs of customers, grower partners and staff. This includes £10 million invested in the state of the art storage and packing facility and HQ for business operations at Flanders Farm, Hoo.
Over the next 20 years, the business aims to double its annual production of home grown fruit and increase the operation at Flanders Farm. In order to achieve this goal, over the next two years it will plant 268,500 new fruit trees, including 112,000 trees to recreate orchards that were previously grubbed after WW2. This takes the total number of trees planted to just under 2 million.
Ross Goatham, partner at A C Goatham & Son comments: “Providing a secure fruit supply for customers across the UK is essential and potentially there are new markets for British top fruit overseas. Over the next 40 years, the world needs to produce more food than it has over the last 10,000. As farmers, we have to be thinking long term and thinking ahead to how we will meet the future demand for food.”
“As well as increasing the capacity for growing fruit, the storage and packing of the fruit is just as important. Many people don’t realise the British apples and pears they are buying on the supermarket shelves today, were picked last autumn and thanks to the use of technology and innovation in the industry, we have the ability to store it so it arrives on the supermarket shelves as fresh and nutritious as the day it was picked. Buying British fruit keeps foreign imports to a minimum, which is also good news for the environment, as food has to travel fewer miles.”
It is also good news for the local Medway economy, helping to preserve and grow jobs for the local workforce. The firm currently employs 230 full time staff and has 300 seasonal workers. It is also working with further education centres and work based learning providers to find and train keen youngsters with the right skills for a career in the farming industry. Currently 60 of it’s staff are studying for NVQ qualifications and 6 are fruit grower trainees.
It is also the wider Kent economy, which is also benefiting from the growth and investment that has been made into the business.
Ross Goatham continues: “We currently farm 1,750 acres of top fruit in Kent across our 14 farms, with an additional 1,850 acres of top fruit grown on our 20 partner farms. We estimate we also have an indirect influence on 1,200 jobs in Kent. Over the last seven years alone we have contributed an estimated £100 million to the Kent economy and our current GVA of £12million will rise to £28 million over the next 20 years.”
“We need people to understand how we are competing in a global marketplace and support British farmers, whatever the sector of farming they are in. Climate change, food security and economic stability are all issues we will feel in Kent and planning ahead now will ensure a long term future for our business.”
For more information:
Sarah Calcutt
AC Goatham / PIP
Tel: 0044 870 9619361
Email: [email protected]
www.partnersinproduce.co.uk
