Increased demand for English apples and pears, coupled with indications of good quality from the first of the crop picked this week, have boosted the confidence of the UK top-fruit sector, according to independent grower Adrian Scripps Ltd.
The firm, which has headquarters and a packhouse in Five Oak Green for its five farms across Kent, has made a £1 million investment to expand controlled atmosphere storage on the site by some 20 per cent, bringing the total available this season up to 12,000 tonnes.
Young Bramley orchards, in particular, are loaded with large-sized fruit, which is already moving through the packhouse and shows what managing director James Simpson describes as “exceptional skin finish, despite the dull cold temperatures in June and July”.
He is equally impressed with the dessert apples. “Fruit maturity is around 10 days ahead,” Simpson said. “Like several growers in East Kent, we experienced a degree of hail damage, but we are delighted that Tesco has been prepared to increase its tolerance specification to take this into account.”
The real winner in Scripps’ variety mix, which still includes historic favourites like Cox and Jonagold as well as Gala and Braeburn, has been Kanzi.
The variety, which is a hybrid of Gala and Braeburn, and means “hidden treasure” in Swahili, is only in its second year, but is already impressing buyers. “We think that we have got a real winner for the future,” Simpson said.
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