In Oak Park, Carlow, Teagasc has established a new apple research orchard at its crops research centre, where a new research program is set up to develop the apple sector in Ireland. Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Pippa Hackett recently visited the orchard as the first harvest of apples were being gathered.
Hopefully, this research could be the catalyst for the development of the dessert apple, or eating apple, sector in Ireland. The domestic retail market for dessert apples is worth €135 million with over 90 per cent currently filled by imports, so the potential for import substitution with locally grown apples is there.
The research programme is expected to deliver essential preliminary data for the future recommendation of apple tree genotypes with high productive potential and fruit quality under Irish conditions, as well as the future proposal of a modern and high-efficiency production model to achieve high yields, high fruit quality with reduced labour costs.
Source: independent.ie