Sainsbury's has set up an organic orchard in a bid to slash its reliance on imported apples.

The four-hectare orchard, which has been developed with Sainsbury's apple supplier Orchard World and grower Peter Hall, in Marden, Kent, has been planted to a high density of 3,300 per hectare - substantially above the traditional 800/ha.

By the time it is fully organic in 2009, it could be producing a yield of 25 tonnes/ha, compared with the industry average of just 10 tonnes.

"In time, this could drastically increase the volume of organic English fruit going into stores between August and April," said Sainsbury's produce category manager, Connor McVeigh. "The target yield after the trees mature could rise as high as 50 tonnes per hectare."

McVeigh said the aim was for Orchard World to recruit another 36 hectares of orchard to the new system. At mature yields, those 40ha of production would displace an estimated 70% of Sainsbury's organic apple imports, he claimed. At present, the retailer sources around 3% of its organic apples from Britain.

Hall said he was excited by the project. "We have an environmental responsibility to find better ways of growing and distributing top fruit and we believe this new orchard is a huge step forward," he said.

However, experts warned that he would have to overcome the threat of disease, which has historically constrained British organic apple production.

"Some of the varieties chosen by Sainsbury's don't stand a hope of resisting fungal infections," said English Apples and Pears chief executive Adrian Barlow. "The challenge is to find an acceptable variety for consumers that is less susceptible to disease."

Hall claimed that the less hardy but mainstream varieties of Gala, Cox and Braeburn would withstand disease because of his use of the latest techniques in disease and pest control.

He has also planted a small quantity of early and late varieties such as Estival, Early Windsor and Egremont Russet.

Topics