… who want to grow apples and other fruits

Blekinge Fruit Initiative  –  a new collaboration between “Blekinge Fruktträd Plantskola” and fruit producers in Blekinge

Let’s grow apples together! You contribute the soil, and we contribute the trees!

BACKGROUND

Fruit production is a high-intensity type of agriculture that makes optimal use of agricultural land. Fruit is one of the healthiest things you can eat, full of vitamins, minerals and nutrition. All over the world, experts agree that we should increase our daily intake of fruit. This requires quality and availability, and this at a reasonable price. The price of fruit, especially organic fruit, is high, with a price of up to SEK 10 for a fruit. This, of course, limits the amount of fruit intake, especially for children and young people, and generally people with a low income. The high price is associated with low production and high demand for organic fruit, not least for Swedish-produced organic fruit.

With its southern location near the sea, Blekinge is a place well suited for fruit growing. This means that there are great opportunities to develop fruit production in Blekinge.

Blekinge Fruktträd Plantskola has for several years investigated which rootstocks and fruit types are best suited for organic production in Blekinge. This experience is now made available to those who want to be fruit producers in Blekinge. Blekinge Fruktträd Plantskola is good at delivering fruit trees and our arboretum has access to grafting material from over 200 different types of fruit, mainly apples. With a production of 20,000-50,000 fruit trees a year, the nursery will for the next 10 years be able to deliver trees to anyone who wants them.

WHAT DO WE DO?

If you have a piece of land that you want to turn into an orchard, we offer you a collaboration where you contribute with your soil and where we deliver and plant the fruit trees that you want. Your job is to put up fences and mow the grass around the trees. We harvest and sell the fruit together and divide the income in proportion to how the efforts are distributed.

We provide know-how about orchard management, fruit types and root types. In collaboration, we harvest and share experiences about the use of machines, fertilization, watering, harvesting methods, etc.

We will also develop new varieties of old well-known fruit products such as. jam, fruit compote, juice, cider, dried apples, etc.

VISION

Our goal is to create about 1000 hectares of orchards in Blekinge, and thus establish ourselves as one of the leading fruit producers in Sweden. We hope to get around 100 large and small fruit producers to join the collaboration. According to experience, an orchard of 10 hectares is large enough to create an income for a family.