This year's excellent Discovery crop has disappointed some English growers as sales levels have fallen below potential.
"There is going to be a lot of Discovery unsold this year," said Robert Rendall, managing director of Plantsman Ardleigh Storage. “We have one more week left of the crop and we are grading it for the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme, and the rest will go to juice. It’s a tragedy, because it’s fantastic apple, but there has been an overlap with southern hemisphere fruit and therefore not enough shelf space or support for the variety.”
The crop has been much larger than last year, Rendall added, which has also been a factor in the failure to clear volumes. But the lack of success this season and bad publicity within the trade for the variety will undoubtedly have an impact on its long-term outlook.
“People are bound to pull some Discovery out next year,” said Rendall. “But what will there be in its place?”
Fellow director Carmella Meyer added: “If there was an alternative [to Discovery] then great, but all that’s happening is that the English industry will lose more market share. At least Discovery is breaking the ground for Worcester and Early Windsor to follow it into stores.”
The variety has been attacked for inconsistency of performance, but it is perhaps the speed with which it passes through the chain that hinders it most. “Discovery needs to be sold quickly, and almost treated like soft fruit,” said Rendall. “It is not a good apple if it hangs around and that’s why the shelves need to be cleared for it and it needs in-store backing.”
With large volumes expected across all varieties, said Meyer, the industry is really going to have to stand together to sell all the English fruit and to achieve a price that will give a reasonable return to the grower.
“There certainly needs to be a better job done generally than we have seen on Discovery,” she said.
