English Apples & Pears chief executive Adrian Barlow reports that January 1 stock figures painted a far healthier picture for the UK Cox crop.
“As a result of the decisive action taken by the industry in December, in removing any fruit coming towards the end of its shelf life, we begun this month with a better balance between stock levels and prospective market demand,” he said.
On New Year’s day, the stocks of Class I Cox stood at 18,000 tonnes, as opposed to a more worrying level of 25,000t in mid-December. Barlow believes that, if everything goes according to plan, remaining fruit should clear the market by April 10, and avoid a potentially difficult clash with European and southern hemisphere fruit.
“There will be some weeks when there will be more pressure to sell and others which will be less stressful, depending on the deterioration of the fruit,” he said. “While I feel dreadfully sorry for the growers who left fruit on trees to colour up and have now seen it juiced or intervened, the industry as a whole is in a better situation in terms of Cox.”
Barlow added: “Cox sales through the multiples alone are 11 per cent higher than sales to all outlets year-on-year and overall sales are up by around 28 per cent. That in itself is terrific, but it has been a very difficult season after a particularly promising start,” he said. “Although our fruit has received good levels of support, it has not been sold at anywhere near the prices we would like.
“Even if we do sell the remainder of the crop, for some growers the damage and suffering has already occurred. There is no doubt in my mind that we will see some English growers go out of business at the end of this season and I will be very surprised if we do not see a lot of grubbing both here and on the continent at the end of the season.”
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