Apples aplenty

Initiated by growers early last century, the Batlow Fruit Co-operative Ltd remains grower owned and today is one of the most recognised horticultural brands in Australia, thanks to its crisp mountain apples and the small green "Batlow" stickers - a branding initiative now widely used within the horticultural industry and introduced by Batlow.

The 100 per cent Australian-owned co-op is also recognised as one of the largest storage and packing operations in the country marketing and packing on average three quarters of a million cartons of apples each year, says general manager John Power.

"The co-op has invested heavily in the latest packing technology to ensure a consistent premium quality," he said.

"Batlow co-op is also of only a few packing sheds in Australia to attain the world recognised quality standards of ISO 9002 and HACCP 9000."

The Batlow story began thanks to the observations of a school teacher, Oliver Courtland-Barberie who was working at Upper Adelong in the late 1800s.

Mr Power said Barberie noted the quality of fruit trees, especially apples, which had been planted by the miners who flooded the area on the discovery of gold in 1852.

"Barberie realised Batlow exhibited the right combination of climate and soil types for growing top quality apples," he said.

"He'd observed apple, pear, plum and cherry trees planted by the miners thriving without any attention and started planting fruit trees close to Batlow in 1897 to begin

experimenting with different varieties to see which were best suited to commercial production.

"This included 50 different varieties of apple from which he discovered Jonathans, Red Delicious and Granny Smiths were best suited to commercial growing and it was these varieties for which Batlow was to become famous for in years to come."

Barbarie left teaching in 1905 to concentrate on his May Day orchard, which was for many years the only orchard of consequence in the district and still remains in

operation today.

It was Barbarie's praise of the high market value of the district's apples in articles he wrote to Sydney and Melbourne newspapers which claimed the fruit had its own "delectable flavour" that drew many orchardists to the Batlow district through the early 1900s, many of whom were graduates of Hawkesbury Agricultural College -

and descendants of a number of these families continue to grow apples in the district today.

According to co-op records, the first commercial fruit production from Batlow started in the decade from 1900; by 1907 there were seven orchards but by 1918 this had risen to nearly 80.

During the same period the number of trees grew rapidly: from 5000 in 1907 to 18,900 in 1910; 37,800 in 1913; 112,000 in 1916 and 150,000 in 1918.

Of the 150,000 trees planted by 1918 this comprised 100,000 apples and pears, 30,000 prunes and the remainder cherries and other soft fruits.

The railway reached Batlow in the early 1920s and with fruit tonnages growing Mr Power said orchardists recognised the need for bigger and better facilities to handle the crop.

By this time the industry was growing but lacked organisation with individual growers packing their own fruit and undertaking their own marketing, which Mr

Power said led to a variation in standards and an excessive number of brands.

A group of fruit growers realised the need for co-operation so they could reach a common goal and the Batlow Co-operative Cool Stores Ltd was established in 1922, with the key original shareholders being: H.V Smith, A.J Arnot, A.E Herring, Charles Smith, G.M Arnot, J.H.G Hubbard, and E.M Herring.

A separate co-operative, the Batlow Co-operative Packing Company was formed in 1923, and in 1927 the cool stores and packing companies amalgamated to form the Batlow Packing House and Cool Stores Rural Co-operative Limited.

In 1939, the name was shortened to the Batlow Packing House Co-operative, and by the 1950s it had become a big business and employed almost 300 people as the main employer in the town, with most local children going to work there on leaving school.

In 1967 the co-operative was renamed Mountain Maid Foods Co-operative, then in 1978 the business underwent another name change to the current Batlow Fruit Co-operative Ltd.

Batlow co-op today is a modern business continually evolving to meet market demands, which involves updating growing techniques and varieties.

Mr Power said growers had for 15 years been moving towards intensively planted, more efficient orchards using dwarfing root stock to ensure "more fruit not leaves"

was produced.

"Orchards today are planted at a rate of 2400 trees a hectare, compared to older blocks at 500 trees/ha and in some cases even less, and trees are grown on trellising in a two-dimensional rather than round shape for ease of picking," he said.

Older trees are removed as production volumes drop but swapping over has become a costly exercise, as the price of apples had hardly moved in recent decades.

"With returns to growers sitting about $1 a kilogram this isn't much different to where it was $25 years ago," Mr Power said.

"In a good year growers can see a return of $2.20/kg, however, costs continue to rise.

"For example, an orchard worker cost about $100 a week in the early 1970s while today that same worker costs $700 to $750/week, plus you have to factor in the cost of electricity and fuel which also keep rising.

"Labour represents about 50pc of an orchardist's costs because thinning, pruning and picking have all got to be done by hand."

On delivery at the cool store (which has 10,000 square meters of storage area), each bin of apples is numbered and described and its contents tracked through packaging to sale, with grower members notified by SMS of the yield from each bin within 10 minutes of it being packed, Mr Power said.

Fruit is graded from premium through to juicing and all Batlow fruit (that produced within a 30km radius of the town) is branded with the green "Batlow" stickers.

The co-operative packs fruit for growers outside this area bit it is branded "Mountains of Flavour" and packed in generic boxes.

In 2013 about 25pc of the fruit packed at Batlow was from apples grown in other regions.

Mr Power said apple cartons ranged in size from 12kg to 18kg depending on the quality of fruit packed within: the 12kg carton contained 60 to 70 pieces of large

premium fruit while the 18kg carton 90 to 150 pieces of smaller class 1 or 2 fruit.

Premium fruit - a four kilogram tray, containing between 24 to 18 pieces of fruit - can sell depending on size and colour for up to $22 to $26, while a 12kg carton of Pink Lady can sell for $38 to $44.

Batlow produces a large amount of premium grade fruit with about 30pc fitting this grade in 2013, Class 1 then makes up another 35pc, and Class 2 averages

15pc to 20pc.

Packed fruit is held for about one day before being sent to Sydney or Melbourne - some delivered direct to buyers warehouses and the rest to the wholesale

markets - and on a big day the co-op will send five full semi trailers out, while on an average day sends one B-double and one single trailer.

In 2013 Batlow co-op packed 600,000 cartons of fruit, packing an average 360,000 apples a day; with a big crop Mr Power said the co-operative would pack one

million cartons in a year.

In recent years the co-op has placed more emphasis on value adding juicing fruit which is processed locally at a plant, with the resulting juice either left cloudy or

processed into cider.

Batlow Premium cider was released in 2011, a medium dry, 5.2pc alcohol sparkling clear cider, while more recently a lower alcohol Batlow Cloudy Cider was released.

This market is growing at more than 30pc per a since it's launch in 2011.