Farm team successfully plants nearly ¼ million new trees

The production team at Kent’s largest top fruit grower - AC Goatham & Son have been busy planting trees this year, in fact lots of them…..220,000 so far at their orchards in Medway, Swale and East Kent. The team, led by Production Manager Peter Bukowski have finished planting by hand varieties such as British Royal Gala, Cameo, Conference Pears and a new variety of apple. The new orchards will be finished off in the New Year with pollinator trees. These are planted at regular intervals along each row and they help to encourage bees and beneficial pollinating insects into the orchards, which in turn help to pollinate the blossom in the Spring. Clive Goatham, Senior Partner at AC Goatham & Son comments: “I’m very proud of the fantastic work by our production team, it is an amazing achievement and has been brilliantly managed. Given the poor weather conditions recently, I think this is the greatest result by this time of the year that our team has ever managed.” “My sincere thanks to all those guys involved, no doubting the fact they have worked extremely hard.” New orchards are planted in the winter months once harvesting has finished and whilst the trees are dormant. Bad weather frequently hampers this type of operation, especially one on this scale. AC Goatham & Son has now planted in excess of 1.5 million new fruit trees over the last several years, helping to increase the production of British home-grown apples and pears and displacing the need for imported fruit. AC Goatham & Son has 28 farms across Medway and Kent and annually grows around 250m apples and 50m pears supplying supermarkets across the UK. acgoatham.com