The last six months will hopefully go down as a nadir for the apple industry. I say that because it does not bear thinking about it getting any worse for growers operating in both hemispheres - or for that matter exporters, importers and suppliers.

However, this particular problem cannot be left at the doors of the UK supermarkets. Prices may well be rock bottom, margins thinner than the thinnest of wafers and net returns below cost for most growers - but this problem has emanated from the growers themselves.

The warning signs have been there for some time, but growers across the globe are now paying the ultimate business cost of an endemic inability to truly work in unison and towards common goals. The preference for a you-first approach to restructure has led many up a financial cul-de-sac.

Forecast production increases in almost every country should have set alarm bells ringing, particularly when new and highly cost-competitive sources began to come on stream.

Strategic planning is a long-term affair in the apple business. But when the fruit is picked, all too often that outlook is replaced by a decidedly short-term view. Too much fruit is being rushed onto markets that are either full or able to exercise buying power over the desperate seller.

Unless unsuitable fruit is kept off the market, the category may not have bottomed out yet.