Alkmene fruit
Alkmene fruit


Fiesta orchard
Fiesta orchard


Research - Current projects

The Economics of Top Fruit Production in England

(DEFRA OF0305)

Aims:

The overall aim is to collect and assess economic data from five commercial organic top fruit farms for three years (2001-2003 harvest years).

Background:

Of all the organic food sectors in the UK, fruit is the least developed. Despite strong consumer demand and high prices for organic fruit there are, at present, only a handful of commercial apple and pear growers. One of the barriers to growers converting to organic production continues to be the lack of published data on the economics of organic fruit growing. Top fruit growing is notorious for its variations in yields and returns necessitating a study covering a number of years in order to provide robust data.

Approaches:

The farms wereidentified from the UKROFS database of organic fruit farms. Data from the farms were processed and collated according to FBS guidelines. Data was further processed into individual crop gross margins and according to commonly used full cost accounting techniques, which are utilised in the fruit growing industry. These facilite easy comparison with conventional top fruit growing.

Dissemination:

Following the end of each year a report will be prepared summarising the year

Collaborators:

HDRA are project leaders and there are two sub contactors ADAS Top Fruit Team, and IRS Aberystwyth.

Project reports and papers



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