AC Goatham & Son has acquired its 28th farm in Kent as the topfruit grower continues its expansion drive.
New Green Farm near Gravesend is a 180-acre farm, and the acquisition takes the total land Goatham farms to 2,830 acres, with a further 2,000 acres farmed by its partner growers in Kent.
With the addition of the new farm, the business will also plant around 380,000 new fruit trees this year, just weeks after completing the planting of over 220,000 trees in 2018.
Commercial director Carol Ford said: “Our current focus as a business is to continue our planting scheme of Royal Gala, Cameo and Conference pears and also exciting new varieties of apples. We are getting ever closer to achieving our goal of providing a 12-month supply of our British delicious quality tasting and looking apples and pears to the UK market.
“We have recently completed infrastructure projects such as additional cold stores to support the volume of fruit we are growing, and once again this year we will be the only British grower supplying the market in August. We are determined that despite the shadow of Brexit hanging over all British growers, we will continue to focus on our growth plans for 2019 and beyond.”
AC Goatham & Son also took part on the AHDB stand at Fruit Logistica this month. “Fruit Logistica is a great opportunity for us to share what we do with a wider international audience, but it is also really important that we get out of our orchards and look outside of the UK into the fabulous world of fresh produce globally, to see what else is happening, and what is new and exciting,” Ford added.
AC Goatham & Son has farms across Medway and Kent and annually grows around 300m apples and 50m pears, supplying supermarkets across the UK.
