Some brighter prospects for apple growers

A MODICUM of good news, at least, from the supermarket sector for farm- ers and growers. And you don't get that very often.

- Chris Rundle

It comes courtesy of Aldi which reports shifting an impressive 30,000 tonnes of British apples this year. With the prospect, moreover, of upping that by 2,000 tonnes next year - as long as the weather behaves and makes them available, of course.

Now one supermarket reporting buoyant sales in one single category may not appear much of a big deal to you. But it is significant. Because it means one of the major players has recognised the worth of homegrown apples and is actively promoting them - in many cases, probably to consumers who had little idea we grew apples at all.

Because the history of the domestic apple sector is one of the most tragic of all the various grim sagas to have dogged British agriculture and horticulture over the last half-century.

Southern England offers one of the best climates in the world for top fruit production. It's generally mild, wellsupplied with sunshine and pretty regularly watered. And over the years we took advantage of that to establish a world-class orcharding sector which commercialised many of the 2,500 native apple varieties.

Then two things happened to change its fortunes dramatically. Supermarkets began to expand exponentially their share of food sales, pushing thousands of independent greengrocers out of business. They then used their market domination (as always) to force down prices, often to ruinously low levels which effectively strangled growers' profits, while demanding trade on a scale dozens of smaller growers were able to fulfil.