Give Bramleys a break

The sixteenth annual Bramley Apple Week kicked off at the beginning of February to spotlight the nation’s favourite cooking apple. But producers say they need a fair return for their efforts. Anna Sbuttoni reports.

When it is cold outside and there is snow on the ground, as has been the case lately, UK consumers turn to Bramley – which has the reputation for being one of the best cooking apples in the world – for comfort.

The iconic British product, which was originally discovered almost 200 years ago when an 11-year old girl inadvertently planted its seed in Nottinghamshire, is still only grown commercially in the UK.

The long-standing popularity of Bramley has made it a national favourite, says Adrian Barlow at English Apples & Pears. “It is the finest cooking apple in the world,” he says. “It keeps its taste right through the cooking process because it contains high levels of malic acid, which we discovered through studies at the University of Reading that we commissioned 12 years ago, and it has a light and moist texture with crunch.”

Bramley is available in perfect condition 12 months of the year, says Barlow, and a single season has been known to stretch for 13 months with an overlap. “Massive advances in cold storage means that there is better quality on the shelf today than ever before,” he adds.

The quality of Bramley on the market this year is second to none, according to Andrew Boxall at Wellpict European County Local in Kent, which produces some 200 tonnes of the apple each year. “Production has been very good this year, with a moist growing season and average temperatures, and we have had a full crop,” he says.

Some 99 per cent of the cooking apples sold in the UK are Bramleys, according to TNS data, and Barlow sees this as a massive achievement. “No other product dominates its own market sector in the way that Bramley does,” he says. “But our job is to increase the size of the cooking market and to get more people to buy into the product.”

Bramley Apple Week, which is intended to raise awareness and boost consumption, ran from February 4-11. Top chefs including Phil Vickery and Heston Blumenthal were invited to be the faces of the 2007 drive, which focused on the burgeoning trend for gastro pubs. An eight-page supplement in the February issue of top food magazine Delicious, which marked the culmination of a nationwide recipe competition to explore the versatility of the fruit and of the week itself, featured Vickery’s apple flan and Blumenthal’s apple sauce, while award-winning gastro pub chef Trish Hilferty supplied step-by-step instructions for a braised pork and Bramley apple pie.

The 2007 event has had positive feedback, says Barlow, although it is too early to say what effect it will have on sales in the long-term, he adds. Sales are up 10 per cent on last week, which showed an increase on the week before. “The real target is to boost sales on a gradual level rather than on a short-term basis,” Barlow says. “The Bramley Campaign aims to achieve an uplift in Bramley sales on a continuing basis. Bramley Apple Week is one of the highlights of the total campaign as it focuses on the variety at a time when the weather is cold, but at a good distance from Christmas, so demand should be at its highest.”

Barlow hopes the event will boost sales until Easter. “We saw an increase in sales from the beginning of February in anticipation of the event, but it’s that drip-drip effect that we want,” he says.

The annual initiative centres around education and awareness over price reductions, says Barlow. “A lot of people see price as all important, but promotion does not equal price reduction,” he says. “Bramley Apple Week is a mechanism to encourage consumers to be more aware of Bramley and see its versatility as a sweet and savoury product, and to attract new consumers as well giving regular users ideas about new recipes – it’s not about lowering prices, and that is not something we want to encourage,” he stresses.

Barlow recognises that the retailers have made an effort to back the campaign. “The multiples have been very supportive of Bramley by ensuring that it has been given fair shelf space and recognising that it is the best cooking apple around,” he says.

But attempts to promote Bramley are separate to the campaign for the English apple season. The push for English top fruit in 2006, which is expected be taken up again this year, did not make a big impact on the Bramley market, says Bramley Campaign chairman Ian Mitchell at the Robert Mitchell Partnership, which grows 125 hectares of Bramley at Foxbury Farm near Seven Oaks. “The support the multiples gave to the English apple season was great, but this benefited dessert apple growers mostly, who have to make a lot of noise about how good their fruit is every season,” he says. “Bramley is marketed all year round and the greatest volumes are sold in the winter, so it did not really benefit from the 2006 campaign.”

The same goes for the campaign for local produce, says Barlow, as it is not as helpful for Bramley as it is for desert apples. But Boxall says local sourcing is an important trend to tap into. “The push for local products is important and we are trying to keep our products in Kent,” he says. “I’m a firm believer in local produce, and the food miles issue will continue to be brought up. This will be a local year.”

The massive changes in modern living pose both challenges and opportunities for the Bramley sector. Boxall says the speed of modern living has eroded demand. “It all comes down to time. Nowadays you can buy apple pie or sauce, but years ago you would have had to buy Bramley,” he says. “The market is going down year on year, and education is what we need, particularly in schools. I was amazed when I went to my daughter’s school and some of the kids didn’t know that apples grow on trees,” he adds.

The rise of ready-prepared dinners, the demise of formal mealtimes, the reduced consumption of desserts and the increasing number of single households have each contributed to the reduced demand from Bramley, says Barlow. “We need to show consumers that cooking with Bramley is easy and need not be time consuming in order to overcome these lifestyle changes,” he adds.

“But eating out is also an opportunity as it provides greater opportunities for getting product onto restaurant menus and we have been very active in this area,” Barlow insists. “Gastropubs are becoming increasingly popular, and it’s important for us to take full advantage of the trend.”

But there are some challenges facing the Bramley market this year and poor returns for growers are central to the problems. Barlow is concerned about the boost in prices at the bottom of the market after cider brand Magners started to use Bramley for cider in 2005 and processing became a more lucrative option for growers. “Product for processing has a lower cost structure in terms of production than that for the fresh market and, with the increase of prices for processing, some growers are questioning whether they would make more selling it to the processors.”

Turnover at Magners increased around four-fold in the last year, according to Barlow, which indicates that the processing market will continue to be an attractive alternative for growers. “The general retail price is barely giving growers a profit and we desperately need an increase in the price that is being paid to growers for fresh product and, if that doesn’t happen in the near future, growers will redirect to the processing market which could lead to shortages later in the season,” he adds.

Mitchell agrees that the multiples are to blame for the diversion of supply from the fresh to the processing market, and maintains that returns for growers are unsustainable. “The trouble is that Bramley is tending to be undervalued by the multiples so therefore alternative good offers from processors do become attractive,” he says. “We have got a situation where the retail price has been raised to consumers, but the price to suppliers has not and margins are very small. For our best fruit, the returns are not covering the cost of production and all it entails, including storage, packaging and haulage.

“It is disappointing that a retailer can raise the price in the shops and not pass that onto the growers, who are already struggling, especially bearing in mind all the work the Bramley Campaign does to support sales,” he adds.

Other firms are phasing out Bramley production altogether. Wellpict European County Local is set to replace eight acres with Gala. “If you can afford to do it, that’s what growers are doing,” Boxall says.

A levy of a penny a lb is paid by the majority of Bramley growers in order to fund the campaign. “They deserve a break. They are supporting production and stimulating consumer demand, which boosts sales in supermarkets,” Mitchell says. “Growers are investing in their product with the Bramley Campaign. But there has to be more of an equal share of the income,” he adds.

February 25th 2007