The UK fresh apple market is set to benefit from the success of Irish cider brand Magners.
“One impact of the hot weather is that we are seeing a lot of sun scorch on Discovery,” said Robert Balicki chairman and acting md of Worldwide Fruit. “This means that quite a lot is being sent to the juicing market which is more buoyant than usual due to the Magners effect.”
Billed as an Irish cider, the drink is made using 17 apple varieties, which a spokeswoman said “are not all English”.
The drink was launched nation-wide in the UK this summer backed by a £20 million advertising campaign after success in Scotland and London last year.
The brand’s success is also helping boost interest in other ciders, which is contributing to the buoyancy of the juicing market. For example, the Scottish & Newcastle group has started its own marketing campaign showing Strongbow being poured over ice and recently reported a 12 per cent hike in pre-tax profits at the group.
A cider revival would help the UK dessert and culinary apple industry by giving it a background of sustained, strong juicing prices. This season another important factor is that volumes of Cox - by far the largest dessert variety in UK production - are more in line with average seasons. “Size and quality is good, although some fruit from trees grown in thinner soils may have some small sizes,” said Balicki.
He warned that a preponderance of smaller fruit on the Continent could mean create problems for UK growers, but potentially opportunities. “There is more smaller fruit than usual in Europe which could mean the UK market attracting that fruit,” said Balicki. “But it may mean that we could sell some of our larger sizes on the Continent.”
UK supermarkets are also getting behind the new season with strong launches for the British crop being organised at Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. Discovery has been in store at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons for the last two weeks and availability is expected to be enhanced by the arrival of Worcester after the bank holiday next week. This will be followed by Early Windsor before picking of Cox for storage begins in mid-September.
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