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Apple growers are under pressure to make as much progress with harvest as possible this week, ahead of weather warnings for wind on Friday.
Strong winds during Storm Ali in mid-September caused damage to bigger apples in some orchards, but overall it has been a very good year weather-wise.
Harvest will take a few more weeks to complete, but reports from growers in Co Armagh are indicating excellent crops.
Sources suggest that the overall NI apple crop could break the 50,000t mark this year, which would represent the biggest NI apple crop in 10 years.
The downside to higher supplies is the impact this has on price, however, the full impact will not be known until stores are emptied next year.
Brexit and labour
Like other agri food sectors, there are also Brexit concerns among apple growers. Around a third of the NI apple crop currently goes to the Republic of Ireland for cider manufacturing.
Labour is the other issue as the industry is reliant on EU migrants, with growers reporting that sourcing pickers for the busy harvest period is increasingly difficult.
Portadown apple grower Edmund Allen points out that as well as the EU migrant workforce, significant labour for the apple harvest could also come from outside the EU if more temporary visas were made available.
“We are after young people that want to travel a bit and work a bit. This used to make up 50% of our workers, but that has dwindled away because it’s harder to get visas,” Allen said.
“We need access to that pool of labour for those two months that we are harvesting. There is no other way of doing it,” he added.
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