The apple job in the UK is increasing in complexity by the week as northern and southern hemisphere fruit begins to switch places on our retail shelves.

Excitement surrounding the official launch of the English apple season, and its biggest promotional backing for many years, is in stark contrast to the dark clouds hanging over the end of the southern hemisphere marketing programme.

Various factors have combined to result in CA stores around Europe being overloaded with end-of-season apples, just as the English and continental producers look to kick-start their campaigns.

Fingers are beginning to point in various directions to pin down the culprits, but the fact of the matter is that apples are being shifted at below cost prices already and there remains a huge volume to clear before the European season can effectively get its claws in.

It does not really matter at this point who is to blame - the inevitable close-season arguments can wait - the UK marketers are now in a tough position.

Some will be worse off than others, no doubt, but most will be scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to sell the backlog of surplus fruit in their chambers. It may have been programmed, but that does not always mean it sees the light of the supermarket shelf.

From a purely English point of view, there is no doubt that any delay to the promised shelf-space allocation in the multiple retail stores would be an even bigger disaster than normal.

A large crop of high quality fruit and a substantial investment in strategically timed promotions simply has to be matched by availability of English fruit to consumers - when they demand it.