By Laurent Beavis

A farmer says he's having to tear down his apple orchards because production is no longer financially viable.

James Smith, a fifth-generation fruit grower who runs Loddington Farm in Maidstone, has ripped up three orchards after seeing trade drop from 80% to 4%.

He has been in the business for over 20 years, but says growers cannot afford to invest in new orchards because they have such low returns on their fruit.

When he joined the farm, 98% of their income was from apples and pears.

The remaining orchards are currently being converted to organic production and there has been no new planting since 2018.

James believes climate change, labour shortages, energy prices and retailer behaviour all play an equal role in the decision to step back from apple farming.

He said: "The first three all increase risk and cost, the latter ensures that none of those risks will be rewarded or the costs covered.

"In terms of volume of fruit grown, we peaked (around 8 years ago) at 2,000 tons of our own production and now plan to pick around 170 tons.

"So in terms of production, we are producing around 8.3% of what we did.”

Due to the current climate and natural decline of the fruit-growing business, Loddington Farm has been moving to regenerative and natural processes.

James is converting his remaining orchards to organic production under countryside stewardship (CS) – a government-run scheme which provides financial incentives for farmers, foresters and land managers to look after and improve the environment.

He added: "We have invested lots of money in modern orchards and have done what we have thought is right for food.

"But we are now trying to farm in a much more natural way and taking a journey which involves moving away from the chemically-intensive way of producing food.

"Part of that journey is specialising and intensifying our production: we've all been pushed into producing more for less, which has been driven by cheap food.

"I've been trying to pivot away from that in the last few years. We will continue to grow apples, but we'll be going back 50 years to traditional varieties, which will mean lower yields but more output from the fields.”

James also discusses climate change as one of the reasons for removing orchard fields – as unpredictable weather patterns have left food production uncertain.

He said: "For a farmer here in UK, there is a high-risk and low-reward business model – what we are seeing are risks increasing. The availability of labour is low and energy prices are high.

"Retailers are pushing the price down for us too so the risks associated with commercial fruit growing are just too high now.

"So it's about managing those risks – which means a reduction of commercial growing.”

James says unpredictable weather started taking a toll in 2021 when late frosts in April heavily impacted the crop.

"In that year we had 21 nights below freezing in April – something we've never experienced before," he said.

"We are used to occasional spring frost, which kills off flowers, but these are weird weather patterns and prolonged periods of unsuitable growing conditions.

"Normally we say weather has a serious impact on your crops every 10 years.

"There was severe frost in 1997, then 2017, but then April 2021 to have severe frost every night for most of the month?"

James says off the back of such unexpected and damaging weather patterns is prolonged periods where not much is able to grow.

He explained: "We're seeing changing seasonal weather and prolonged periods of cold, but also mild and wet winters mean trees don't shut down as well as they should – so you don't get the growth potential for the following year.

"At the moment we either have floods or drought and don't have too many periods of weather in between. It is very extreme.

"Modern trees designed for production are not resilient enough for mild winters and cold springs.

"You have one shot at an apple production each year – if weather isn't on your side, you're at a huge disadvantage.”

Ali Capper, executive chair at British Apples and Pears Limited (BAPL) said: “Sadly, we know that a number of our growers are grubbing their orchards and not replanting them.

"With supermarket returns low and costs high, most UK apple and pear farmers are really struggling.

"We’re very worried about the long-term future of our industry – if we stop planting new trees, we will reduce the future supply of British apples.

"That’s not good for our farmers, the rural economy, the environment, or shoppers.

“To stop the rot, we need retailers to pay a fair return to growers, we need government to reverse its ‘cheap food at all costs’ policy and we need shoppers to continue to ask for and buy our delicious British fruit.”