Worldwide Fruit's Steve Maxwell has told the Journal that the English top-fruit industry's biggest marketing desk has grown in numbers and strength again this year.

"We'll market at least half of the English volume this year," he said. "And while the industry as a whole expects to register a rise of around 20 per cent, we will be at least 35 per cent up year-on-year.

"The East Kent area is where the real growth in the industry is coming from and that's where we are strongest. Newmafruit has joined us, but our bigger growers keep regenerating their crops and getting bigger."

The climate in East Kent is the reason for its consistent performance, added Maxwell, and the volume increase reflects a changing varietal focus and greater confidence in the future of the industry brought about by customer support for the fruit.

"Gala volume is now more than a third the size of our Cox volume," he said. "But there is still a lot of Cox being planted. I will take all the Braeburn growers can give me - there will be a round 400 tonnes this year and within three or four years I expect that to rise to 1,500-2,000t."

Maxwell admits that his advice to grub niche varieties and replace them with varieties the consumer wants was not always popular, but it has been heeded and its commercial logic is being recognised. "The supermarket customers are right behind English apples and varieties such as Gala and Braeburn allow for straight import substitution, which ties in with their strategies very nicely."

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