Decline of UK apple orchards

[orangepippin]

Some interesting and actually quite encouraging statistics published on the EAM blog.

We all know that the UK orchard industry is in decline. Defra figures show dessert apple acreage falling from 13,000 hectares to 5,000 hectares between 1985 and 2012.

However new varieties and better techniques mean that yields have actually doubled - from 12 tonnes per hectare to 25 tonnes. So the decline is not quite as bad as it sounds.

Meanwhile cider orchards are expanding, up from 4,000 hectares to 7,000 hectares in the same period (and many new cider orchards are using smaller trees to improve yields as well).

[yummersetter]

I think that in the early 90s there was an EU grant to farmers who ripped out their orchards. I remember driving down to Exeter through fields with piles of cut-down trees and bonfires burning, it was the apple version of the foot and mouth calamity. That time was the era of complete disinterest in english apples - the supermarkets were full of french and american varieties, the wave of planting small orchards of traditional / heritage varieties was still a few years off and cider was a downmarket drink. I think the interesting time to study would be late 90s to the present, its definitely an improving situation for interesting home-grown retail apples and cider sales.