Cider orchards adapt to bumper summer apple yield

Sandford Orchards near Exeter said it had installed eight new 50,000 litre (11,000 gallon) tanks

Two orchards in Devon and Cornwall have reported a bumper crop of apples this year, with extra yields of up to 30%.

Sandford Orchards near Exeter said it had installed eight new 50,000 litre (11,000 gallon) tanks to cope with the extra summer harvest.

The National Association of Cider Makers (NACM) said the harvest was still in its early stages but early cropping varieties were arriving around two weeks ahead of schedule.

Tom Bray from Haywood Cider Farm in Cornwall said it had been "a pretty perfect summer" for apple growing due to "plenty of sunshine to ripen the apples and a little bit of rain to keep them growing".

'More apples, more tanks'

Sandford Orchards owner Barny Butterfield said the process to adapt was "really simple".

"More apples, more tanks, so this year with so much fruit we've had one option - we've got to put in more capacity," he said.

"None of the fruit that we grow, and we're talking about 3,500 tonnes (3,500,000kg) of fruit, none of it will you see in a supermarket.

"We don't press a single eating apple or cooking apple, we press cider apples."

Mark Hopper, director of public affairs at NACM said the fruit quality from the 2025 cider apple harvest was "excellent".

"They're showing high sugar levels and strong flavour, although apples are slightly smaller than average following reduced rainfall over the summer," he said.

As for where the best cider comes from, Mr Bray added: "Well, Devon cider, that's very good but Cornwall, you know, we've got our soils are mineral rich and we've got beautiful sunshine all year round so it just gives us the edge over Devon."