Concept Orchards
In April 2006 we planted a 1 hectare Concept Orchard in Kent, this was formally adopted by Sainsbury's in September 2006.
Since the Concept Orchard was planted less than a year ago, 24ha of intensive orchards have now also been planted by some of our growers. Through the education of the Concept Orchard, many were encouraged to plant their intensive orchards as a result of their learnings taken from the OrchardWorld Focus Grower Group.
Why plant a Concept Orchard?
- The productivity and profitability of apple production is becoming increasingly a marginal business proposition and therefore the long-term sustainability is unfortunately questionable.
- With Supermarket business also becoming more competitive it is unrealistic to anticipate a great upturn in the price per kilo paid to the producer.
- It is therefore our opinion that the long-term sustainability of apple production must be driven by increasing production from existing Orchards and hopefully new Orchard plantings.
- In Holland yields of 60-100 tonnes per hectare are quite common and have been proven to be achievable in the same Orchards over a 10-15 period.
- With greater yield per hectare comes a reduction in unit cost per kilo. This enhances the potential: a) profitability b) to survive in the ultra competitive supermarket business. c) for a planned and sustainable future.
The Organic Concept Orchard
Due to the success of the Conventional Concept Orchard an Organic Concept Orchard was planted w/c 19 April 2007.
The Organic orchard has been planted to demonstrate the fast-track growing of conventional varieties to achieve volumes of UK produced organics in the shortest possible time.
The Organic Concept Orchard will also play an important role in educating our conventional and organic growers in new husbandry techniques, these will assist particularly our conventional growers in their pesticide minimisation responsibilities.
