East Malling Research has joined with Norman Collett Ltd to form a partnership that will see the extension of EMR’s organic farming acreage over the next four years.
The commercial agreement was signed last week by Dr Colin Gutteridge, chief executive of EMR, and Andy Sadler, managing director of Collett’s.
With 6.5 hectares of organic fruit already in production, EMR has identified an opportunity to increase commercial production and the plan is to plant a further 10.5ha over the next three years.
The partnership will see Collett’s offer loan financing for four proposed intensive planting programmes over the four years following the winter of 2009.
“We are already responsible for marketing organic apples grown by EMR, so felt that a closer partnership was a natural progression,” explained Sadler. “There is currently very limited production of organic fruit in the UK, at a time when consumer demand is expanding.”
Part of the agreement is the inclusion of further variety trials on behalf of the industry, said Gutteridge. “We have already established that conventional commercial varieties like Cox, Gala and Braeburn were difficult to grow organically,” he added. “This factor, together with the credit crunch, has created a degree of reticence to increase organic production within the industry as a whole.
“We looked for alternatives - mainly from eastern Europe - and have planted Rajka, Rubinola, and Rubinstep, which have already proved to have broader disease resistance, are well suited to the UK climate and are now coming into commercial cropping.”
Collett’s selection is following a similar route, said technical director Nigel Jenner. At present, there are plans to introduce two Dutch varieties - Collina, a striped red early variety, and Santana, a block red apple that stores well and is suitable for the Christmas period. Mid-season bi-colour Attento from France, as well as Modi, which is already being trialled conventionally, will be included in the planting schedule.
“Our joint agreement will help fill the organic marketing gap, and will benefit our growers through increasing their own knowledge to help them make an informed decision before choosing to go down the organic path,” said Jenner.
