Organic apples prized in UK

By Dita De Boni

Luckily for New Zealand's organic apple growers, the $660 million British organics market is an insatiable beast.

British consumer demand for foreign organic produce, fuelled by food-based health scares and the looming presence of genetic engineering throughout Europe, means supply cannot compete with demand.

Consumer demand, however, is not the only reason organic apples from New Zealand are so highly prized.

A low yield of conventional apples in New Zealand for the past two seasons and the inability of the Apple & Pear Board (Enza) to fulfil orders to Europe has meant that British supermarket chains such as Tesco are turning to organic growers.

Also, the apple size desired by British supermarkets is proving difficult for Enza to meet and this is where organic growers step in.

Glen Cunningham, director of the Fresh Fruit Co and this country's only exporter of organic apples, says that British buyers want small apples because the fruit tends to be sold in bags, whereas in the United States and domestically people prefer to pick through loose apples in bins.

"Tesco essentially told Enza, 'you're not growing the apples we need.' It's not their fault because they have to fill many other different orders around the world.

"But Tesco then turned to organic growers because we were freer to supply them with the smaller variety."

In the mid-90s, organic apple growers gained consent to market their apples separately from Enza because it was recognised that the organic fruit would add value to the industry as a whole, and because Enza did not feel threatened by an industry that it did not consider economically viable.

Enza now participates in about 10 per cent of the organic apple industry.

Enza's Pat Turner, who denies the board has ever underestimated organics, confirmed that Enza "could not fulfil the quotient of conventional apples to any major UK retailers last year."

David Cranwell, a New Zealand-based buyer for large British supermarket chains, says that although the demand for organic fruit is insatiable in Britain, the huge premiums paid to growers will eventually decrease as countries around the world build up their organic industries.

A box of organic Braeburns, for example, can fetch up to $35, while conventional Braeburns make about $14.

"I think [the New Zealand organic apple market] could probably sell up to three-quarters of a million cartons to the UK if supply could keep up."

Mr Cranwell believes the demand for conventional apples will eventually disappear.

Enza says it has spent $5 million on an integrated fruit production programme to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. All conventional apple growers will have to use the system by the year 2001.

But independent consulting scientist Dr John Clearwater, who says Enza has not taken organic apple growing seriously enough, says the new pest management system will drive the whole organics industry "off the top of a cliff."

Integrated production relies on a group of chemicals called insect growth regulators, to which Dr Clearwater says pests can become resistant.

"Catastrophic loss of control of a key pest - known as leafrollers - in the integrated fruit production orchards is likely to occur in the near future," he warns.

The cost of eradicating pests naturally, the necessary failure of 20 per cent of even a good yield and the extreme susceptibility of organic crops to weather-induced diseases such as black-rot make costs high, but Dr Clearwater says growers will be able to cash in on New Zealand's clean green image in a seller's market if we remain as organic in our methods as possible.

"Countries that are successful will need to have a combination of the willingness [to be committed to organics] and the ability to do scientific research."

Mr Cunningham agrees, adding that "New Zealand can satisfy food safety standards easily, and our advantage is that we are the only country that has the volume of the preferred varieties like Royal Gala and Braeburn.

"The UK market is absolutely worth it for our organic apple growers," he says.

"Many growers are producing organically for philosophical reasons and are willing to really work on natural growing techniques, and it's through the help of companies such as Tesco that we can generate substantial premiums for them."