Cooler nights over the past week are providing a welcome boost to the English apple industry as it begins picking for long-term storage.
The sector had downgraded its forecasts for this season’s Cox output, as the crop was picking light due to dry conditions earlier in the summer. Without the required temperature differential between day and night, fruit was not acquiring the desired colour either. “The colour was not there but pressures were right so it was a difficulty for growers,” said Adrian Barlow of English Apples & Pears.
Early figures suggested a crop 20 per cent higher than last year, at around 52,000 tonnes. However, colouring and sizing issues are likely to limit the increase to around 10 per cent, according to Steve Maxwell, marketing director at Worldwide Fruit.
“The first night of colder temperatures did not arrive until last Thursday (September 15), he told the Journal. “As a consequence of the conditions of the last few weeks, sizing hasn’t come forward and the colouring of the fruit has not moved on as expected either.”
The revised volume prediction has now fallen to 47,000t, as Cox arrived on the shelves of all major UK multiple retailers this week in time for a concerted promotional push from both growers and their marketing arms, co-ordinated with their retail customers.
But according to Barlow the smaller sizes are beneficial for the market. “This means we will have more fruit for poly-bagging at the expense of loose,” he said. “This is useful as last year it was difficult to meet the demand for poly-bag sizes.”
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