The recent heatwave has helped Kent fruit growers win the race to get the first English apples into stores this year.
The warm days and cold nights of the last few months have resulted in a good-quality crop of Discovery apples, enabling Paddock Wood top-fruit marketing company Norman Collett Ltd to win the unofficial UK apple run.
On Tuesday morning, the first Discovery apples went on sale at Tesco’s Pembury store near Tonbridge - earlier than at any other supermarket.
Tesco apple buyer David Croxson said: “A good amount of rainfall in May and June combined with normal summer temperatures and the last week’s heatwave has created nice, firm, juicy Discovery apples with a good crunch factor.”
Growers started picking and packing their apples this week and are transporting them to local Tesco stores now. The rest of Kent will get the apples from Sunday, and stores nationwide will receive them from August 10.
Between them, Tesco’s Kent growers will harvest an estimated two million Discovery apples over the next four weeks, until the arrival of Worcester and early Windsors in late August. They will also provide Gala, Egremont Russet, Braeburn, Cameo and Cox apples, plus
Conference and Comice pears.
Croxson added: “Tesco is committed to increasing the amount of English-grown apples it sells this year, and we’re hoping to reach record sales of 150m apples.”
Collett’s has been supplying apples and pears to Tesco for 20 years. Its growers are all Kent based and represent 23 per cent of top-fruit production in the UK.
The company says the quality of its fruit looks exceptional, and strong sales are expected as customers start picking up UK apples and pears again as they come into season.
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