Apples from ‘perfect harvest’ rot on the ground as demand for cider slumps – Observer

On a sloping hill just south of Dartmoor, boughs are laden with brightly coloured Devon crimson, pig’s snout, tale sweet and slack-ma-girdle. Gabriel David wanders through his five-acre orchard and acknowledges this exceptional yield of heritage cider apples: “It should be an absolutely vintage year,” he says.

“After such amazing sunny weather in lockdown, the apple blossom was perfect. The bees were everywhere: it was a stunning spring. Then it rained at just the right time so our cider apples are bigger, with a higher sugar content, resulting in a greater complexity of flavours.”But, thanks to the pandemic, many apples will be left to rot on the ground because demand for cider and luxury juices has fallen dramatically. David, who is the founder of Devon-based Luscombe Drinks, one of the UK’s only organic cider producers, said: “We’d normally supply small chains of cinemas, theatres, pubs, hotels and restaurants. But, with coronavirus, so many venues just aren’t open.”

The problem is compounded by a backlog following a slump in sales during lockdown, says David, who relied on the hospitality trade for 80% of sales until early 2020. “That’s where a lot of the wastage is: we’re still selling last year’s cider, and the cider we’re producing now won’t sell until February,so we need to produce less. Plus the market still has a lower demand. It’s a challenge.”

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