The UK's largest top fruit grower is continuing its expansion, as Rochester-based AC Goatham & Son has acquired New Green Farm near Gravesend. The 70-hectare farm takes the total land it farms to 2,830 acres, with a further 2,000 acres farmed by its partner growers also in Kent.
Is has farms across Kent and Medway and annually grows some 300 million apples and 50 million pears, supplying supermarkets across the UK.
Carol Ford, commercial director at AC Goatham & Son, said: “Our current focus as a business is to continue our planting scheme of royal gala, cameo and conference pears and also exciting new varieties of apples. We are getting ever closer to achieving our goal of providing a 12-month supply of our British delicious quality tasting and looking apples and pears to the UK market.
“We have recently completed infrastructure projects such as additional cold stores to support the volume of fruit we are growing and once again this year we will be the only British grower supplying the market in August. We are determined that despite the shadow of Brexit hanging over all British growers, we will continue to focus on our growth plans for 2019 and beyond.”
With the addition of this new farm, the business will also plant around 380,000 new fruit trees this year, just weeks after completing the planting of over 220,000 trees in 2018.
