Farming minister David Heath visited the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Kent on Thursday (1st August).

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The farm is owned by the University of Reading, which has taken responsibility for scientifically curating and maintaining its collection, one of the largest fruit collections in the world, since 2008. The collection is owned by Defra and provides a home for over 3,500 named Apple, Pear, Plum, Cherry, Bush fruit, Vine and Cob Nut cultivars and forms part of an international programme to ensure that there are enough food crops for the future, despite the effects of climate and environmental change.

Mr Heath toured the collections, visited the newly repropagated apples and also saw pear, bush fruit, cherry and plum collections. The Minister said, "It was fantastic to see how one of the largest fruit collections in the world can help protect us against future threats like pests and global climate change. The team in Kent and Reading do an excellent job helping make sure we have the right varieties of fruit for generations to come."

However, horticultural production and the biodiversity of crop species in the UK both appear to be under threat. The latest figures from Defra, released on Wednesday, show horticultural production took a severe hit in 2012, largely due to adverse weather conditions, which persisted throughout much of the year.

The annual report from Defra showed that, while total fruit and vegetable areas remained almost unchanged in 2012, vegetable production fell by four percent year on year and fruit production dropped by 14 percent compared to 2011 levels.

The UK produced only 56 percent of its vegetable needs in 2012, a 3 percent drop compared to the five-year average self-sufficiency estimates. Worse still, only 10 percent of the fruit consumed in Britain in 2012 was grown here, another dip compared to the three-year average of 12 percent.

Orchards disappearing

Four years ago the National Trust claimed that 60 percent of England's orchards had disappeared since the 1950s. They were one of many organisations that argued at the time that if nothing was done, a crucial habitat for flora and fauna could be wiped out forever. It has also been estimated that between 80 and 90 percent of fruit and vegetable crops widely grown in the nineteenth century had been lost by the end of the twentieth, taking with them the potential to provide useful traits for disease or climate resistance.

However, Reading's Dr Matthew Ordidge, who acts as Scientific Curator for the National Fruit Collection, said work being done at the collection is helping to preserve many species which, without the support, would also fall victim to the homogenising trends of the last century. He said the University's important genetic resource houses "varieties thought to date back to the 1500s."  

Dr Ordidge continued, "Our research helps policy makers and commercial growers in tackling the challenges of maintaining sustainable fruit production in the future. Indeed there is emerging evidence that spring is occurring earlier in the year which is leading to challenging conditions for almost all crops."