The Future of Orchard Fruit in the UK

Orchard Fruits: Collaborative action-research to accelerate a regenerative and resilient future for the UK orchard fruit industry

The challenge

Despite the UK’s deep history of orchard fruit production, the sector is increasingly at risk from multiple, and intensifying, environmental, social and economic pressures:

The UK is only 17% self-sufficient for all fruit, 40% for apples, and 20% for pears and plums, despite a favourable production climate^1,2

Only 25-30% of the UK population eat the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day, with knock-on implications for the nation’s health³

Intensifying financial pressures are leading to farmers removing orchards, with a lack of financial risk sharing across the supply chain⁴

The sector is under-prepared for climate change impacts, water stress, and nature depletion⁵; while the dramatic losses of ecologically-rich orchards since 1900 reduce their much-needed contributions to biodiversity⁶

Dominant narratives about what needs to change are generally siloed and not commensurate with the scale, urgency and interconnected nature of the challenges. Coherent policy support is lacking. Despite the UK’s technical capabilities, there is little clarity or agreement on how to achieve increased production

Forum for the Future believes that bringing the orchard fruit sector together, to collaborate in new ways and develop stronger shared ambitions for regenerative and climate-resilient production, is needed in order to help ensure the future availability of healthy and affordable orchard fruits in the UK, and to preserve orchards' many cultural, economic, and ecological benefits.

Our approach

Forum for the Future is running a collaborative multi-stakeholder action-research project, from June 2024 until the end of 2025, to support the UK orchard fruit sector in achieving a regenerative and resilient future.

Our goal is to work with UK orchard fruit stakeholders to build a shared understanding of the opportunities to scale up regenerative and climate-resilient practices within the sector, while fostering shared ambition, strong relationships, and commitment to action among the stakeholders able to deliver that change, through a collaborative action-research process.

A deliberately wide range of stakeholders from across the orchards sector—as well as from industry, policy and civil society, public health, and the wider market—will work together to accelerate the scaling of regenerative and climate-resilient approaches. These are some of the questions we will work together to answer:

What are the challenges and opportunities to promote a thriving future UK orchard fruit sector, including for scaling regenerative and climate-resilient approaches?

How might the industry meet these opportunities, and what is needed for this to succeed?

What action is needed to support positive social outcomes and ensure equity in the sector, as well as environmental outcomes?

The process is designed to bring together different perspectives and opinions regarding ‘regenerative’ and ‘climate-resilient’, with a shared focus on securing a thriving future for the UK orchard fruit sector, including decent livelihoods for food producers and workers, improved access to affordable healthy diets, and the restoration of the natural world. The project will gather and highlight insights about how to accelerate the journey to a thriving future sector, working together with participants to:

Understand the challenges and potential pathways for progress: Mapping the challenges, trends, barriers, and opportunities for scaling regenerative and climate-resilient approaches in orchard fruit production.

Showcase scalable solutions, innovations and best practices: Collecting examples from farm practice to value chain innovation and beyond, and developing a selection of inspiring in-depth case studies.

Generate recommendations and calls to action: Aimed at industry, policymakers, civil society, and those who can enable sector transformation.

Build the capacity of UK orchard fruit stakeholders to act and collaborate further for a regenerative transition: Sharing knowledge, skills, and inspiration to drive action and catalyse broader change.

Share insights about making change happen: Capturing change and positive impact resulting from the project and insights into how the change happened that could be useful for other sectors or challenges.

How to get involved

Please contact us to find out more and discuss how you could get involved. We welcome enquiries from any of the following stakeholders:

Orchard growers/workers from different regions and production systems, with insights and interest in scaling regenerative, climate-resilient production practices and models.
Businesses involved in the UK orchard fruit sector with insights and interest in the commercial barriers and opportunities around scaling regenerative practices and value chains.

Policy actors interested in influencing and informing relevant policies and regulations.

Healthcare professionals with insights and recommendations on the linkages between regenerative agriculture and sustainable nutrition.

Civil Society Organisations that advocate for regenerative agriculture and engage with the orchard sector (or other relevant sectors).

Please contact Libby Lyon to find out more and discuss how you could get involved.

Who’s involved?

This project is made possible with thanks to Jenifer Barton and family, and the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

Home

This project is part of the Growing our Future UK initiative

Related links:

Growing our Future UK and US
Report: Windfall: Putting a value on the social and environmental importance of orchards
Report: Supply Chain Synergies – What is the appropriate role of supply chains in achieving responsible production at farm level? , commissioned by the Oxford Farming Conference
Report: Scaling regenerative agriculture in the UK: Accelerating change through collaboration

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