Apple consumption is falling as wide-ranging promotions on other fruit tempt shoppers to switch from the traditional favourite.
Sales volumes of apples fell 3.2% to 501 million kgs in the year to May, TNS figures show. The market grew by just 0.8% to £712m.
Consumption continued to fall over the summer, with growers blaming the wide availability and tempting promotions on soft and stone fruit.
Apples had to compete for shelf space with peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and plums, which all sold in larger volumes than usual following a bumper growing season.
People were eating fewer apples across Europe, said Adrian Barlow, chief executive of English Apples & Pears. "I am concerned about the reduction in sales of apples and not just in this country," he said.
"I've told the World Apple and Pear Association that we need to determine why this is the case and what we can do about it."
The current economic climate in which anecdotal evidence suggests consumers are eating less healthily also partly explained the drop, Barlow claimed. However, he was confident the start of the new English apple season would boost consumption once again.
"There's a huge amount of support from the multiples," he said. "They are all making plans to increase sales of English apples, including highlighting them in stores and in advertising. Hopefully the decline will turn around."
Barlow, who welcomed promotional activity as a way of boosting English apple sales at the start of the season, added that there was huge scope for import replacement if growers could achieve margins that let them reinvest.
However, the next few weeks are likely to see steep competition. Cut-price Braeburns are on shelves as a result of an overhang of southern hemisphere fruit into the European season.
New Zealand Braeburns, which should have been off shelves by now, are expected to remain until mid-October.
Sales volumes of apples fell 3.2% to 501 million kgs in the year to May, TNS figures show. The market grew by just 0.8% to £712m.
Consumption continued to fall over the summer, with growers blaming the wide availability and tempting promotions on soft and stone fruit.
Apples had to compete for shelf space with peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and plums, which all sold in larger volumes than usual following a bumper growing season.
People were eating fewer apples across Europe, said Adrian Barlow, chief executive of English Apples & Pears. "I am concerned about the reduction in sales of apples and not just in this country," he said.
"I've told the World Apple and Pear Association that we need to determine why this is the case and what we can do about it."
The current economic climate in which anecdotal evidence suggests consumers are eating less healthily also partly explained the drop, Barlow claimed. However, he was confident the start of the new English apple season would boost consumption once again.
"There's a huge amount of support from the multiples," he said. "They are all making plans to increase sales of English apples, including highlighting them in stores and in advertising. Hopefully the decline will turn around."
Barlow, who welcomed promotional activity as a way of boosting English apple sales at the start of the season, added that there was huge scope for import replacement if growers could achieve margins that let them reinvest.
However, the next few weeks are likely to see steep competition. Cut-price Braeburns are on shelves as a result of an overhang of southern hemisphere fruit into the European season.
New Zealand Braeburns, which should have been off shelves by now, are expected to remain until mid-October.
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