On the 24^th of July I delivered the first pick of English Discovery apples direct to a Tesco store..  earlier than last season.  A couple of farms in the county have had exceptionally early orchards this year so we had the fruit picked and straight into the packhouse, writes Sarah Calcutt, Technical Manager for Norman Collett Ltd.

I know that first off this sort of event sounds like a fairly pointless piece of PR but what better way to start what could be a difficult year than with a positive piece of news.   A radio journalist accompanied me to the orchard in Marden and learnt about picking, we then went to Nigel Bardsley’s packhouse in Staplehurst and we taught her about packing the fruit.

Recording as we went, the aim was to produce a piece that will educate the consumer on what goes on behind the scenes – an insight into the rules and regulations that guarantee the safety and quality of our produce. The hairnet and health check form at the packhouse surprised her, as did the hand washing, glove wearing and other safety precautions…  having packed our 6 crates of apples and talked about quality, colour, sugar and pressure and problems with hail damage, we delivered them to the local store.

So..  low food miles and from tree to customer in 5 hours..  not bad.  We were welcomed by Richard the young produce manager who had made space for the crates, he immediately started telling the customers that the fruit was the first of the English season, fresh from the tree, gratifyingly 2 people put down their foreign fruit and had Discovery apples instead…  A really knowledgeable member of staff in a store, that was nice too.

So why am I including this in the column?  This fruit was identified as being early because the grower has a close relationship with the marketing company – this enabled a piece of PR that was good all round – the grower, the sales desk, the multiple, the customer and the industry.

I am trying really hard not to talk about the weather but growers affected by the recent hail or the waterlogged conditions really need to have a regular dialogue with their marketing desk.  With many growers affected by hail to varying extents it is essential that sales desks are armed with good information on crop volumes and quality;  it maybe possible to move specifications and keep the customers aware of shortages and issues before the harvest starts.   

Some growers have been able to thin out the lighter hail damage, with no shortage of water fruit is destined to be large and that too will need close watching and the tweaking of specifications to ensure that good volumes remain available.

With this season seeing possibly the greatest demand for home grown product, it is up to us to ensure that quality is high and that the customer is not disappointed when biting into English top fruit.     ‘Would I buy it?’ is the mantra of the Technician analysing fruit on the shelf, if you don’t like the look or the taste of an apple then the customer wont either….