September 2024 was the official launch of the brand new British apple season. The most recent data released by British Apples & Pears Limited (BAPL) shows which stores had the greatest success in supporting British apple companies in the early three months of this year.

The 2023/24 season was no different, Aldi came out on the top of the heap. British growers sold 11,824 tons of British apples to Aldi between September 2024 and December 2024. That means that the discounter sold just 23% of the UK apples purchased by BAPL growers over that time and significantly outperformed its share of the grocery market at 10% (11).

Again, Tesco took some time to establish itself and top the British chart of volume for apples at the end of December 2024. It had been in third place on league tables, behind Aldi and Lidl between the months of September and October. The largest retailer upped its efforts in the last month of 2024 to record the largest quantity of British apple production (2,734 tonnes) among all supermarkets.

The new season volume of Tesco’s equates to 18% of the total British apple sales by BAPL cultivators between September and December 2024. This is lower than their market share in the grocery sector of 28.5 percent..

As a discounter like Sainbury’s, Lidl also outperformed compared to its share of the grocery market by purchasing 16 percent (8,499 tonnes) of the British apples that are sold by BAPL growers as opposed to its 7.3 percent share of the grocery market. The retailer is now third on the league tables during the first 4 months of the season. It also pushes Sainbury’s to fourth.

Although it was fourth, Sainsbury’s performed well, taking 16 percent (8,281 tonnes) of the total amount of British apple products sold by BAPL producers between September 2024 and December 2024, exactly equaling its 6% market part.

Marks & Spencer and Waitrose were also successful between the months of September through December 2024, buying 2,911 tonnes and 2,707 tons of British apples, respectively. The volume of both stores’ purchases of British apple was higher than their market share in grocery.

The beginning of the season in 2023, Asda had been a disappointing retailer, purchasing just five percent of British apples produced by BAPL growers, compared to the market’s share at 13.6 percent. In 2024 however the supermarket enjoyed the highest year-on-year growth with 1,044 tonnes of apples than it did in the previous year[22 (see Table).

Ali Capper, Executive chair of BAPL Ali Capper, Executive chair of BAPL, said: “Once again Aldi and Lidl have significantly outperformed their share of the grocery market and were well ahead of British best fruit. They are however facing an intense opposition from Tesco after it finally made it up to the top of this year’s season’s league table in December 2024. Apple production numbers are at the pace of previous seasons. From October through December 2023, there was the total of 45,901 tonnes that were sold by BAPL producers to UK retailers. This is in contrast to 45,404 tonnes during the same timeframe in 2024. It is a good supply with the high-quality apple is top-quality.”

BAPL publishes monthly sales data on its website: https://www.britishapplesandpears.co.uk/supermarket-sales-data/

For further information, click here.

Louise Raisbeck

British Apples and Pears

Tel: +44 07966 688063

[email protected]