An exhibit of bramley apples has won the top prize at the National Fruit Show for the first time in over a decade.
Producer Bardsley & Sons picked up the NFU Prize for the ‘best all-round exhibit in show’, beating off the competition from dozens of other apple and pear varieties and scoring a near-perfect 99 out of 100 across six judging categories.
These included freedom from disease and pest; freedom from bruising and other damage; internal condition; skin quality; uniformity of colour; and uniformity of size.
Growers Nigel and Annette Bardsley are hoping that this victory for the struggling variety, which has been grubbed by many growers in the past few seasons, will boost its image and encourage growers to maintain their current bramley acreage.
“It’s a unique product to this country so it would be a shame to see this variety disappear,' said Nigel Bardsley.'Bramley needs this buoy up because in the last two or three years returns have not been good.
“People have grubbed bramley orchards because they can earn more on dessert fruit but with that grubbing we’re now back to having equal supply and demand. Prices should be better, which should help bramleys get a better price. Hopefully this will encourage growers to maintain the bramley acreage we have now.”
The show's president Michael Jack added: 'I think it's a tremendous fillip for the variety and I very much hope that people like English Apples and Pears really exploit this winning poistion of the variety to try and give it a boost in the market place. It may well reignite consumers' interest in it.'
Bardsley & Sons, who are regular winners at the National Fruit Show, also won in the braeburn category, a variety that Bardsley sees big opportunities for.
“We have major opportunities with English braeburn through import substitution,” he said. “Whereas bramley is 100 per cent English, a portion of the braeburns we consume are imported. What we’re trying to do is provide English braeburn instead of foreign braeburn.”
He added: “post-Brexit there’s a great opportunity to say: 'look, we have a fantastic industry and we’re not going to have no apples, because we’re still producing them in this country.'”
In pears, trial grower Colin Bird of Agrii won the Fruiterers’ Company Medal for ‘the most meritous exhibit of pears’ for the second year running, scoring 97.5. His conference pear, grown on Agrii’s 1-hectare development and trial plot in Essex, beat stiff competition from commercial farms.
Bird said: “Although our farm is primarily there for education, demonstration and trial work, we also grow on commercial principles. What better way of showing how you can grow commercially than entering the National Fruit Show and winning.”
