Expansion of throughput by more than 100% over the past few years has been achieved by specialist English top fruit marketers Norman Collett. And with their move into £4 million spacious new premises at Paddock Wood, Kent last year they have plenty of scope to continue growing apace.

Colletts’ achievements are reflected by the optimistic attitude of members of Mid Kent Growers whose fruit they market. Although the poor 2005-2006 marketing season dented some growers’ confidence, its causes have not been repeated. Indeed, the current campaign has seen a complete turnaround of growers’ fortunes that has put many of them in a more expansionist mood.

Dean Tunbridge, Colletts’ new customer account manager, expected the market would be receptive to larger supplies of English fruit of the right specification and varieties. So the company are encouraging their growers to expand by planting new varieties and are supporting extensive trials of those specially bred for organic production. The organic market is greatly under-supplied and there is great potential for English growers to plant organic fruit, he maintained.

“The profile of English fruit is the best it’s been for a long time; its supermarket shelf allocation is higher and there’s been an encouraging level of repeat purchases,” he said. “But our throughput [of dessert apples] tails off at the end of February, leaving the way clear for imports.  “At present most Gala is imported but it’s a ready made market for us and so if we were able to build up supplies they would provide import substitution,” added Dean Tunbridge.

Colletts’ technical manager Sarah Calcutt said that the feedback from growers at Mid Kent Growers’ annual general meeting was positive. They indicated that they were planning new orchards as well as replanting with newer varieties such as Rubens that will enable the marketing season to be extended.

Like Cameo, which Colletts also markets, Rubens is a premium club variety with good profit potential. Sarah Calcutt believed that the variety has all the attributes necessary for it to compete suceessfully with other newcomers like Jazz and Kanzi although unlike these it’s not a Braeburn type.

Colletts have have high hopes for Rubens and expect their growers to plant around 120,000 trees of it, ideally using a trellis support system, over the next three years. This means that small volumes of the variety will be marketed in 2009.

Rubens is a Gala-Elstar cross produced by Italian breeders CIV (Consorzio Italiano Vivaisti). It is less susceptible to Scab, mildew and canker than Gala and is harvested at the end of September between Gala and Braeburn or Cameo.

Its fruit is conical, bright red with a green-yellow background, has very good eating quality and a post-Christmas marketing slot. Its trees are less vigorous and more compact than those of the other new varieties, cropping very consistently on one and two-year-old wood.  Some 400,000 Rubens trees are expected to be planted in Europe this winter, adding to the one million or so already in the ground. It is being grown in eight European countries, South Africa and Washington State.

Tesco, one of Colletts’ main retail customers, have asked them to produce a larger varietal range and volume of fruit over a longer season for the rapidly expanding organic apple market that’s dominated by imports. But as conventional varieties cannot produce the reliable supply, yield and quality needed, purpose-bred organic varieties will have to be grown. So trials of such varieities, potentially suitable for our climate, are being established by the company on three sites this winter.

“The challenge is to find other varieties to get the volume of fruit that the organic market requires – varieties that are suited to our climate and that suit the British consumer’s palate,” affirmed Dean Tunbridge. “Our long-term aim is to grow enough organic fruit to satisfy the needs of our customers.”

The trials, each comprising 600 to 700 trees, are on farms at Staplehurst, and Hawkhurst, Kent and Battle, East Sussex. The varieties involved are Modi, Juliet, Crimson Crisp (Coop 39), Pinova, Rubinola and Topaz. All have resistance or tolerance to scab and mildew and Modi also has some aphid resistance. Two trial sites will receive a standard organic spray programme and the third will be unsprayed.

The six varieties are precocious croppers producing red or bicoloured fruit. If planted commercially they will probably be marketed before Christmas although Crimson Crisp is claimed to store for four months, Juliet for five or six months and Modi for up to seven months.

Juliet, a bicoloured  apple, is the earliest, picking at the beginning of September. It is a club apple similar in shape to Discovery and particularly sweet and juicy. It is being planted quite widely in France where production is expected to reach 2,200 tonnes by 2010.

With Liberty and Gala parents Modi, another CIV variety, is said to taste like Gala and have the disease and pest resistance of Liberty. It is also claimed to have superb eating quality and to crop consistently heavily, arguably making it suitable for conventional as well as organic production.

Modi’s trees have medium vigour and produce abundant bloom on one, two and three year wood making thinning necessary to prevent excessive yield and reduced fruit size. Its fruit is conical, 80 to 100% dark red (similar to Spartan), picking around mid-September and storing in CA for up to seven months. It has good flavour with a high sugar content and acidity level and a shelf life of several weeks. One Collett grower is already sufficiently impressed by Modi to plant 2,000 trees of it this winter.

Crimson Crisp, a cousin of Juliet, has also shown promise in France for organic production. Its small to medium sized, conical fruit is mostly red with a yellow-green background, picking in early to mid-September. It is claimed to have a rich flavour and a crisp bite. To prevent biennial cropping and improve fruit size, thinning will be necessary.

The other three trial varieties, Pinova, Rubinola and Topaz, are already established for organic production on the Continent. Apart from being suitable for marketing fresh from September to December they are also considered to have good potential for juice production.

This season Colletts’ technical director Nigel Jenner will also be testing the efficacy of the Exosex codling moth pheromone confusing system for both organic and conventional apple production. It has Soil Association (as well as PSD) approval and so should be of particular value for organic growers. The dispensers involved contain electrostatically charged female pheromone particles that confuse male moths, thus preventing reproduction.

In addition, he will be continuing his trials with ethylene scrubbers, aimed at improving the quality of long-term stored Bramleys. Last season’s trials proved very successful.