A change in our shopping habits and a move to being more health conscious saw sales of locally grown apples and pears rocket during the lockdown.

And the demand is helping fuel the planting of more orchards in the county - although there are concerns the wet weather in the spring and cold snap in May could impact the harvest.

AC Goatham & Son, the Medway-based growers which provides around half of all the British Conference pears in the country, says it sold 43% more packs of apples during the first lockdown last year, while, according to research from Kantar, 860,000 households bought pears for the first time.

It planted a further 137 acres last winter and has plans for 148 more this coming winter.

Ross Goatham, managing director of the UK's largest apple and pear grower, said: “People bought more apples and pears during the lockdowns here in the UK because they store well and last for a long time and this suited their pattern of shopping which moved online, to in-store collection and to less frequent shopping trips.

"Research also shows that 62% of Brits have made a change to their diet to be healthier over the past year and 33% are including more fruit and vegetables in their diets. This is good news for British growers like us who are continuing our major orchard planting programme, which will ensure there is a greater volume of British apples and pears in the years to come.

“That said, like all farmers our harvests are very dependent on the weather and this year we have seen a very wet, cold spring which is a poor combination when pollination is taking place in the orchards. The gains we would hope to make year on year with the increase in production as new orchard yields increase might be more modest this year, although it is still too early to estimate the effect the weather has had.”

Meanwhile, the firm has announced the promotion of two new directors.

Gayle Goatham, who has worked for the firm for 20 years, becomes HR and recruitment director, while Steve Barwick, who joined the firm in January 2020, is appointed commercial director.

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