Poor harvest and rising costs for apple farmers

Apple growers say this year's exceptionally hot weather has left them facing significantly smaller harvests and rising costs.

In Shelsey, near Worcester, grower James Holloway expects production to fall sharply, despite harvesting a similar area of orchards to last year.

"We get paid by the tonne, so it's going to have a big impact on our business this year," he said.

Holloway, whose business manages 230 acres (93 hectares) of orchards, said the main problem this year had been the size of the fruit.

Some apples are 25% smaller than he would usually expect.

"They're nowhere near the size we would expect at this point of harvest," he said.

"That's where our loss of yield and weight is coming from.

"If they had grown to the same size, we would have a significantly bigger yield. We picked nearly 17,000 tonnes last year.

"I would expect we're going to be 12,000 to 13,000 [tonnes] on a very similar area, so [the drop] is quite significant."

The farm harvests apples for more than 20 other growers, with many of the apples destined for cider production.

Holloway said yields across the industry were down by between 15% and 40%.

At the same time, growers are facing steep increases in costs.

"With the high input prices of fertiliser, agrochemicals and diesel going up by probably 60% on last year, we're definitely feeling the pinch," he said.

"It's a double whammy with the weather and the cost, so we could really have done with a good harvest this year."

The effects of the summer have also been felt at Orchard Cider in Frith Common, near Tenbury Wells.

The business said its orchards would normally produce about 350 tonnes of apples, but this year the harvest was expected to be between 200 and 225 tonnes.

It said it would have enough cider to meet demand, thanks to strong yields last year, but expected lower income because there would be fewer surplus apples to sell.

However, the warm weather did provide one boost, with cider sales rising by about 12%.

With harvests down and production costs rising, growers say cider prices could increase next year.

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