Record Apple Harvest Helps Keep Pace with Cider Growth
October 23 2008
Bumper harvest!
Farmers and cider makers are working flat out to cope with an expected record apple harvest.
The cider industry will press around 150,000 tonnes of apples over the next few weeks. This will be a record and estimated to be 20% up on last year.
It means nearly half of all of the apples grown in the UK are now used by the cider industry and it is the highest proportion of the total crop being used to make cider.
In the last decade it is the cider makers who have planted many tens of thousands of acres of new orchards to boost the production of apples for cider.
It is just as well that a big harvest is expected as cider remains the fastest growing drinks category in the UK.
Cider industry, spokesman Simon Russell said: ‘Even with the credit crunch depressing consumer spending, the sorry state of the pub trade and an inflation-busting duty hike from the Chancellor, cider sales are up around 10% year on year.’
It has not all be good news as the wet summer has had an impact.
Whilst it will be a very big harvest the cold and wet weather will challenge cider makers as the lack of sunshine and poor summer temperatures can mean the levels of natural sugars in the apples might be reduced.
The level of sugar in apple juice is important to the cider maker as it is the sugars that ferment to alcohol.
Said Simon; ‘Cider Makers are used to challenges and gathering a record harvest will be a challenge they welcome given the growing demand for cider.
The use of agricultural land as orchard is seen as being one of the most environmentally positive uses possible.
Not only are the orchards themselves a natural haven for all forms of wildlife but the cider industry is actively developing sustainable practices and technologies to improve further the benefits created by orchards.
One example is use of the apple residues after the juice has been extracted to produce biofuels.
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