The article was published Saturday, September 12, 2015
On the Apple Kingdom in Kivik, this year’s apple harvest started to roll in. The harvest lasts until October and the fruit can be stored until this July. The storage is an important part of the chain and now extending to capacity.
On the Skåne fields, spreading the scent of apples that ripen when the summer comes to an end. The trees are full of fruit harvested from August to late October.
– It looks great in the field and there is a huge amount of apples on the trees, the prospects are good for a great harvest! Summer has been a bit cold so the fruit has not evolved much, but the three great weeks in August made a big difference, says Henrik Stridh, who is president of the Apple Kingdom.
Important storage
The harvest looks to be quite large and timely enough planned a new cold storage to be ready in October.
+ layer construction began in May and is planned to be completed in October. It is a long-term storage with gas tight room where you hold down the oxygen level of about 1.5 per cent, explains Henrik and emphasizes the importance of a good storage to keep the high quality of the apples.
The outer shell is built by a local contractor and the fridge is built by a Polish firm that specializes in cooling systems.
– I think it will happen a lot in the coming years, when it comes to how to store and handle the atmosphere of the coolers. Long-term storage is very important to us and where we want to be absolutely the best, says Henrik.
Swedish apples are harvested in the fall and is thanks to the storage quality until July.
– Ica has its own variety called Ruby Star. That we could deliver to them until July 24 to 25 this year.
The aroma, taste and crispiness
Something Henrik talk a lot about is changing the vocabulary when it comes to apples. Talking about fruit characteristics that the aromatic, crispy and sweet apples are. It is something we can improve on his opinion.
- Regarding the must have already come a long way, now we need to carry forward even in the apples, says Henrik.
Apple Kingdom increased sales of apples every year and the goal is to increase by 50 percent by 2020. It is both old and new growers investing.
– It is great to see that both new growers to come and be a part of the ancient expands, it means of course that there are economics of it all, says Henrik.
Swedish apples are still a small part of total consumption, but the interest and the demand is there says Henry.
– It is not so difficult to grow apples on a tree, the hard part is having the right number of apples on the tree and get the right taste. It’s something we work a lot in order to get consistent high quality. I do not believe that the apples imported from the other side of the world will be available in Swedish stores in the long run, says Henrik and reasoning further:
– We have high and growing crops in Europe and we are good at storing so I see no reason for that type of imports in the future.
When brugte visiting the Apple Kingdom is the variety Discovery made ready for store shelves. The red and green apples are transported in water of not being supportive. Then sorted defective and rotten apples out and then weighed each apple and lands nicely in a box of apples of the same size.
How to market and consumer demands will look in the future do not really know, but Henrik talking about apples are packed in trays are popular in many other countries.
– If the consumer wants tray, we will resolve it. It’s important to be on the market, he says, and develops the idea of the Apple Empire brand:
– We want to be seen more and become a brand that consumers recognize. They’ll ask for apples from the apple kingdom to maintaining the highest quality.
Apple Kingdom
What: An economic association with some 90 members which account for 65 percent of the Swedish fruit sales.
Where: Kivik, Österlen.
News Expands warehouses and increases capacity by 2 500 tonnes.
Cost per hectare: To plant a hectare of apple trees costing around SEK 400 000 and the operating cost per hectare is around SEK 100 000 per year. One hectare contains approximately 3500 trees and cultivation is renewed usually after 10 to 15 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment