Cider Industry Looks Ahead To Secure Sustainable Future

The challenges that Britain's cidermakers face in the decades ahead and how to respond to them has been the focus of a comprehensive and detailed industry-wide two year study which has recently been completed.

Cider Futures: A vision for a sustainable cider industry in 2022 is thought to be one of a few rigorous exercises of its kind so far conducted on an entire industry. Its aim is to position and equip this most traditional of industries to deal with the challenges - and benefit from the opportunities - that are likely to occur in the next 13 years and beyond.

'There’s going to be a lot of uncertainties to face in the next decade as climate change, economic and social uncertainties affect our ability to hand on an industry in good shape to future generations', said Richard Heathcote, chair of the National Association of Cider Makers Sustainable Development Committee.

'We could say let's wait and see what happens and deal with it when it occurs. But we decided that the responsible thing to do was to put in place the thinking and planning now to equip our members with the best available information  to allow them, and the industry as a whole, the time and space to consider the best strategies to meet whatever we face', he said.

The process, carried out in conjunction with leading sustainable development charity Forum for the Future, began with research into identifying the principal factors that will affect the cider industry though interviews with key figures, stakeholder groups and sustainability experts  to gain their views on its progress on sustainability to date, and what is likely to be significant in the future.

From this exercise the top forty factors were identified and these formed the basis of four scenarios which were examined and tested in great detail in workshops attended by a wide group of interested and diverse participants.

'The exercise has been comprehensive involving a broad spectrum of opinion and as a consequence is invaluable in identifying the breadth of issues that we need to consider', said Richard.

'As an industry we have an excellent record on sustainability - our exercise has shown just how much more remains to be done, in this and many other areas if we are to successfully meet the many pressures we are going to face as an industry and as individuals. The task we have set ourselves is to turn the use of this vision of the future which has emerged into reality, and we currently see this being used as a 'check and balance' for our individual companies' future strategies. So we are now working hard on industry-wide plans to take the first steps towards this vision', said Richard.

A copy of the full report is available from Nick Bradstock at  August 6, 2009

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