Cider apple growers in the UK are facing critically low yields this year, with some orchards harvesting as little as a tenth of their usual crop. The scarcity is attributed to a combination of recent heatwaves and a lack of cold winter weather, which are increasingly becoming the norm due to climate change.
Neil MacDonald, a cider apple grower, noted that practices once considered sufficient for young trees, such as simply digging a good hole, are no longer viable. "Now you can't get away with that, you have to irrigate young trees or they die," he explained. However, irrigating hundreds of acres of cider orchards is economically unfeasible, unlike for eating apple producers who receive higher prices for their fruit and have invested in irrigation systems.
The changing climate also poses a threat to the distinctive taste of West Country cider. The Dabinett apple, a variety crucial for the region's bittersweet cider profile, is producing very few fruits this year. "Dabinett needs a cold snap," MacDonald said, attributing the low yield not to drought but to the absence of cold winter days in recent years. In response, he is grafting different varieties onto his Dabinett trees that are better suited to hot, dry conditions.
Mike Kendon, a climate scientist at the Met Office, described the current weather patterns as no longer extreme but increasingly normal. The drastic reduction in apple yields leaves cider makers with an uncertain future, as they contend with the evolving environmental conditions that are reshaping traditional agriculture and product characteristics.
