Controlled scarcity' of niche licensed varieties part of new strategy English top fruit growers, members of Worldwide Fruit, have been provided with a £2m regeneration plan designed in the long term to rebuild profitability. According to the recent World Apple Survey, the industry was rated 17th out of 25, the lowest in western Europe. But chief executive Alasdair Robertson confidently predicted this week his 180 members, who grow three million plus 30lb cartons of dessert apples as well as culinary fruit and pears, "could be among the most profitable in five years". The package aims to use more effectively the £1.5m of EU producer organisation funding available in a series of long and short-term measures. In parallel, members will provide an "investment levy" totalling some £900,000, raised from a growers' investment levy of around half a per cent of sales, which Robertson said would be ploughed straight back. Additional financial support will be provided by Worldwide, which represents some 65% of English apple production. Robertson said there was a vital need to upgrade many of its 16 English packhouses and Worldwide had already taken several measures to do so. In future he said there would be a need for colour graders, new types of packaging and other measures to increase the proportion of quality fruit. Emphasis will be on discovering or adapting more licensed niche varieties to support Cox ­ a marketing strategy which Robertson called "controlled scarcity". Worldwide is already using its international links with New Zealand and French fruit breeders to develop European grown Pacific Rose, Pacific Beauty, and Moonglo. These will be tested commercially in the UK within three years. There are also lesser known apples in the pipeline such as Jazz and a Gala/Braeburn bicoloured cross only identified as T272. Worldwide has invested in 10,000 Meridian trees ­ the UK's newest variety ­ which will be given to growers with the most suitable sites. Growers' profitability for all these new fruits will be covered for the first three years of production while volumes build. There is also help for traditional varieties led by Cox which still accounts for 48% of Worldwide production. {{M/E FRESH PRODUCE }}

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