Leading French apple grower-exporter Blue Whale is on a mission to capture a greater share of the UK apple market from its European and Southern Hemisphere competitors.
The Montauban-headquartered group, which already supplies around 30 per cent of all French apples to the UK and Ireland, believes it now has the necessary volume, varietal mix and geographical advantage to supplant some traditional European sources and one day compete with southern hemisphere arrivals in July to August.
Blue Whale’s bold UK ambition comes after forming a supply partnership with Loire-based apple cooperative BVL in March that significantly expanded its production, packing and distribution base.
Under the deal, Blue Whale and BVL agreed to pool their resources and export fruit under the Blue Whale brand.
With BVL on board, Blue Whale expects to export 50 per cent more apples to the UK – its number one export market –this coming season (60,000 tonnes up from 40,000t in 2013/14).
In varietal terms this means 50 per cent more Golden Delicious, 35 per cent more Royal Gala, 15 per cent more Granny Smith, and 25 per cent more Pink Lady than last year.
“It’s going to be a good year,” says Blue Whale export manager for the UK and Ireland, Sylvain Brard. “We have the right quality and varieties to meet the demands of the UK market.”
Brard is careful to point out that Blue Whale has no interest in competing with domestic UK apple production, and focuses on supplying varieties that are not grown in great volume by British growers, such as Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.
“We want to fulfil demand for the lines not supplied by UK growers. Our strategy is not to fight with them,” says Brard. “We export our Gala and Braeburn elsewhere.”
With the UK market in mind, Blue Whale renews seven per cent of its orchards each year, Brard reveals. “The target is to have as many young trees as possible to meet UK demand going forward,” he says.
Blue Whale has so far replaced 85 per cent of its Granny Smith orchards with its younger and more attractive clone Challenger. And the group is also developing its small-and-sweet variety Ariane for the UK kids fruit retail segment.
It also runs a research orchard in southern France that trials around 100 new apples. “We are looking into different concepts, like red-flesh apples, with a focus on eating quality,” says Brard. “We want to find the right trees for the right area to get the right fruit.”
Pink Lady is another growth variety for the group. Since its alliance with BVL, Blue Whale expects to market 45,000t of Pink Lady globally from November this year, making it Europe’s number one Pink Lady supplier.
“As a group, we are able to offer mixed lorry loads of any variety from anywhere in France on a daily basis,” says Brard. “Thanks to our stronger position in the Loire Valley (northern France), we can now deliver to the UK within one-two days – which is much quicker than our Italian, Austrian and southern hemisphere competitors.”
Around 85 per cent of Blue Whale’s UK volume is supplied to the major multiples, with the rest distributed between the wholesale and foodservice sectors.
“The UK market is becoming more and more difficult and demanding,” says Brard. “France’s share of the UK apple market has shrunk over the years due to increased UK production and mounting competition from other northern hemisphere suppliers. There are many more competitors than 30 years ago.
“Even if French volume is decreasing in the UK, we want to keep a large share of the market,” says Brard. “The UK is our top export market and is very important to us.”
