The Concept Orchard project, jointly run by OrchardWorld and Sainsbury’s, has been awarded the Institute of Horticulture’s Norah Stucken award.
The award, presented at a ceremony last week, was given in recognition of “orchard development to the benefit of the British Top Fruit Industry, the environment and education”.
The principal goal of the scheme at inception was to ensure the longevity of British apple growers, by introducing a more cost effective and intensive way of growing apples to improve crop yields without increasing the area of land used.
The first Concept Orchard was planted in 2006, and the project was extended last year with the first Organic Concept Orchard. Dr Theresa Huxley, Sainsbury’s product technologist said it is already having a significant impact on the chain’s in-store performance with home-grown fruit: “We have recently launched the British new season apples and in the first four weeks to September 9, we are pleased to have sold more British dessert apples than any other retailer. This highlights our commitment to work closely with our growers and suppliers to ensure that together we are equipped in the future to supply our customers with all the good quality British fruit they want.”
Huxley said that not only are they key to delivering sustainable apple production and reducing pesticide usage, but growing links with schools also lend the initiative a strong educational element for the younger generation, and the added benefit of promoting careers in the land based industries.
Sainsbury’s plans to sell more varieties of English apples than any other retailer during the British season. Huxley added: “Apples are such an iconic healthy British product, it makes sense we source from the UK as much as possible. Concept Orchards allow us to do exactly that and we are particularly pleased that our sharing of learnings with the industry has been recognised.”
