UK: Good mix of apple sizes should create balance

The English apple harvest is underway with some of the early varieties such as Discovery and Early Windsor picked last week. Mid to late September will see a full supply with Gala and Cox.

 

A bumper apple harvest of 12,611,000 tons was predicted for Europe this season in the recent WAPA figures. This is 36% more than the last year's harvest of 9,251,000 and 13% more than the average of the past three years. Although due to the drought conditions and high temperatures it is expected that this figure will fall. The estimate for the UK apple harvest is 220,000 tons, up on last year's 206,000 tons but still short of 2016 volumes.

 

"English growers had good fruit set but sizes will be smaller due to lack of water in the growing period," explains Sam Trebbick from OrchardWorld. "Growers who have full irrigation will potentially have slightly larger fruit size but it will remain challenging."

 

Last year English growers had a lot of large fruit, some too large for retailer's pack sizes, but Sam said that there is a mix across the market from grower to grower and from retailer to retailer. "The retailers tend to have a smaller size pack, for Gala for example, and one for bigger (standard sized) fruit. So all being well, one would hope that the mix of fruit sizes will create some balance if specifications are in line with the crop."

 

"We have nothing left of last year's crop, that went months ago and we are at the tail end of Southern Hemisphere fruit and in that transitional period where early Southern European fruit from France will kick in to fill any gaps between Southern Hemisphere and English, so hopefully there will be continuity in the supply."