Report into future of UK orchards published on World Apple Day 2025

The Future of UK Orchard Fruit report summarises findings from 12 months of in-depth research and sector-wide consultation with more than 150 stakeholders to highlight five pressing, interconnected issues that are creating a very uncertain future for apple, plum and pear production.

The key findings are:

• Competing land use priorities, including new housing, which have driven the loss of more than half of all orchards in England and Wales

• A climate crisis that is causing more frequent and extreme weather events, as well as new pests and diseases, both in the UK and countries we source from

• An over-reliance on imports; the UK is only 40% self-sufficient for apples and 9% for pears and plums

• Difficulties for commercial growers in ‘making ends meet’ as rising production and labour costs, as well as investment in new technology, make thriving livelihoods hard to come by

• Consumer preference towards apples of a particular taste, size and colour, which drives lower grower profitability.

Reimagining the future of UK orchards

The report comes on World Apple Day, which aims at encouraging celebration of the richness and diversity of apple-growing — and three weeks ahead of world leaders gathering in Belém for COP30 to discuss collective action on the climate crisis.

Based on the input of orchardists, the report goes on to reimagine the future of UK orchards — painting a five-point vision for what a thriving sector for British top fruit can and must look like; a future in which, among other things, the UK itself grows more of the top fruit it needs to feed UK citizens.

Right now, over 50% of apples sold in the UK are imported from France, Italy and South Africa. Instead, the report suggests we need a secure, resilient local supply in which British farmers are supported to earn a good living and are able to share risk with long-term, responsive contracts that allow producers to continue investing in their orchards.

In this vision, community orchards are more accessible and available to all, offering opportunities for people to connect to food-growing activities, nature, and neighbours. These spaces must be supported by local councils and maintained long-term by community members equipped with the right training and resources.

Orchards are also protected and funded for their biodiversity and other environmental benefits. Developers must work closely with local councils and communities to preserve traditional orchard spaces and put plans into action for planting and maintaining new orchard spaces, the scientists said.

They also said that maintenance of traditional orchards should be encouraged through environmental payments and grants, reflecting and preserving their cultural and historical significance as rich habitats for biodiversity.

In the future there would also be ample jobs and people with the skills needed to care for fruit trees and orchards of all sizes. Here, community orchard groups should offer skills training for communities, while UK agricultural colleges offer courses for future orchardists.

Alongside this, orchard fruit production should be incentivised as a viable and desirable career that enables people to earn a decent living.

UK cider, like French wine, is sought after globally for its unique taste and regionality. Here, rural communities and the UK economy should be bolstered by the traditional cider-making industry, while a system of commercially operated, traditional cider orchards helps to regenerate ecosystems.

‘Inspiring vision of thriving future for orchards’

Commenting on the collaborative research, Katherine Zscharnagk, senior change designer at Forum for the Future, said: “From a worsening climate crisis and increasing competition for the UK’s finite land to an over-reliance on imports and rising production costs for farmers, threats to the future of UK orchard fruit are mounting. We need to do things differently.

“That’s why we’ve engaged more than 150 stakeholders from across the sector. Collectively, we’ve painted an inspiring vision of what a climate-resilient, thriving future for orchards needs to look like, and we’ve made recommendations on how to get there.”

The research ran from June 2024 to July 2025. It involved extensive desktop analysis and in-depth interviews with representatives from across the top fruit supply chain, from growers and community orchardists to non-profits, researchers, retailers, and national and local government representatives.

Among them were British Apples & Pears (BAPL), a not-for-profit, which represents all commercial apple and pear growers of dessert and culinary fruit in the UK; The Orchard Project, a charity creating, maintaining and celebrating community orchards and the skills to maintain them; and Find & Foster, which uses time-honoured techniques to produce fine English ciders and wines from the traditional Devon orchards it manages.

‘We need to better harness their potential’

Ali Capper, executive chair of BAPL, said: “We welcome this new report and are a sector that is ambitious to grow market share from 40% to 60%. We know this is possible because in the last twenty years the amount of apples produced from a static land area of 5,500 hectares has more than doubled – this is an amazing productivity achievement!

“Growers need long-term contracts and fair returns from the market and significant tax reliefs from government in order to make the investments needed in British orchards.”

Kath Rosen, CEO at The Orchard Project, said: “Community orchards bring local, inclusive, and long-term solutions to social and environmental challenges by equipping communities with the skills and resources needed to effectively steward green spaces. They strengthen food security, enhance biodiversity, and create social infrastructure that supports wellbeing and resilience across the UK—and this report makes recommendations as to how we ensure their future.”

“The UK’s traditional orchards have the potential to produce exceptional ciders, and they are important homes for biodiverse species, many of which are rare” said Polly Hilton of Find & Foster. “We need to better harness their potential and communicate to the public the benefits of choosing ciders carefully made using 100% fruit from traditional orchards. That way, the orchards could pay for themselves to be looked after, rather than relying on government grants that come and go.”

The report calls on national and local government, the orchard industry, and civil society groups to take action. “Everyone has a role to play in creating a better future for the UK’s much-loved orchards,” Kat Zscharnagk continued. “Whether it’s supporting growers with long-term contracts, commercialising more of the fruit grown, making more land available, or trialling new models that make farming more feasible, urgent and systemic steps are needed now,” she concluded.

Find the report here.

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