Orchard losses ‘threaten species’

Traditional fruit orchards are vanishing from England’s landscape – with serious consequences for wildlife, conservationists have warned.

The National Trust says 60% have disappeared since the 1950s, putting local varieties of apples, cherries, pears, plums and damsons under threat. It is launching a £536,000 drive to reverse the decline of the orchards. Their trees provide important habitats for species such as the noble chafer beetle and lesser spotted woodpecker.

The orchards – some with as few as five trees – also offer sources of pollen and nectar to bees, which are thought to be declining partly because of a lack of suitable food. Pressure from commercial fruit growers has led many small-scale producers to develop their orchards or convert them to other uses.

via BBC NEWS | England | Orchard losses ‘threaten species’.

So all I want to establish at this point really, is the fact that cider and perry have a lot more in common with wine than they do with beer.

Wine and cider are made from pressed fruit juice which is left to ferment and mature slowly. They are not made from a selection of recipes which always produce an identical product  year in year out like beer, which is created from chemically neutralised and adjusted water with added malt sugars and hops flavourings.

Each craft cider or perry maker develops their own blend of fruit and either natural or selected yeast fauna. The vintage  will vary from year to year almost as much as the terroir from one cider producing area to another.

The problem is that industrial cider is seen as little more than an alternative brand of lager beer, but this has nothing to do with the full juice craft cider which we promote at ukcider. And the role of cider and perry within the real ale organisations will always be a minority role, and that has proved to be much more of a restriction that it has an opportunity. Real cider and perry need a campaigning organisation of our own, not one tied to the interests of the lucrative beer festival organisers, which will always attract overwhelmingly beer drinkers.

In the meanwhile we would do well to explain , explain and explain again that cider has much more in common with other fruit wines than it does with beer.  You need to understand that in order to produce quality craft cider, and to appreciate it too. To that end we  would do well to read, learn and associate a lot more with our European counterparts with small vineyards who produce craft grape wines than with the beer drinkers.

A short run of prototype stickers have already been distributed to most of the real cider pubs in South Dorset thanks to Rose who reports a great reception wherever they are offered. The stickers themselves have been designed by Jez, and printed in small batches by Dick Dunn over in the USA and posted over to Rose here in the UK. Now there are just enough to send out a handful each to people who know they can definitely get them put up in doorways and windows of pubs that serve full juice real cider and perry.

The idea to get this up to the next stage is that the artwork is made available on the ukcider wiki so that anybody with a good quality printer can follow the instructions to make some more for local distribution. There are over 1,000 cider pubs recommended in our online cider pub guide but we want to concentrate on those that sell unique, local craft ciders. Much as we really do appreciate all those Wetherspoons pubs that sell Westons Old Rosie and Vintage cider, both excellent drinks, we are aiming at the outlets for smaller producers at first.

Hi everyone,

I want to let you know about an important new organisation designed to put your voice into the debate around alcohol. The Responsible Drinkers Alliance is the first time the vast majority of responsible drinkers can have a voice in this debate.

The Government is about to make some major decisions on how we all buy and consume our drinks. There are voices calling for major restrictions and taxes. They are getting a widespread coverage in the media and vocal support amongst some politicians. The voice of the moderate drinker is being drowned out.

The Responsible Drinkers Alliance will change that by giving us a platform to make our voices heard. So come visit the site and become a member. You can join in our online debate or you can simply add your name to our community of responsible drinkers.

As they say, it’s your choice, it’s your voice, so use it!

Alcopops, cheap white ‘cider’ and strong beers have been singled out for criticism, but spirits and wine duties are expected to rise also.

At present, cider holds a special place in the customs and excise duty regulations. Already lower than other alcohol duties, duties on spirits, sparkling wine and cider have been frozen for at least the last two years.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2006/bn55.htm

The rate for beer is calculated on a percentage alcohol basis at £13.26 per hectolitre per cent of alcohol in the beer so a 5% lager would attract duty at £66.30 per hectolitre

The duty on still cider and perry however is levied at a fixed rate of £25.61 per hectolitre up to 7.5% abv, with only a slight increase to £38.43 for 8.5% ( above this strength it counts as apple wine)

So the duty on a mass produced white cider at 7.5% is currently only around a quarter of that on beer of a weaker strength. Wine and spirits are taxed at a higher rate again.

What are the implications for high quality, 100% juice, craft ciders? At present these have the same alcohol duty advantage as the mass produced industrial imposters, so if the duty rates for cider are increased anywhere towards parity with beer, then the cost of retailing craft ciders will have to go up as well, at least for all except the smallest producers who make only 7,000 hectolitres per year or less.

Those are the facts, but these are some of the questions arising:

1) Why is cider taxed less than beer?

2) How can they get away with calling something fermented from less than 30% apple juice “cider” ?

3) Will increased taxation reduce binge drinking?

4) Will it hit craft cider producers worse than cheap white ‘cider; manufacturers?

5) Is this why NACM tried to squash the campaign to defend the small cidermakers exemption? To what end?

And more importantly, here are some possible actions to be urgently adopted:

* Step up the campaign to defend the small cidermakers exemption – the petition currently has 1,400 signatures and is due to be presented to the prime minister in May.

* Build the ukcider Campaign for Real Cider and Perry – only an independent campaign can represent the interests of the real cider producers and drinkers.

* Expose the deceptive NACM definition of cider which allows for less than 30% juice with the unlimited addition of water and sugar before fermentation.

* Support sensible drinking awareness – http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

Listen to Rod Marsh from the National Cider Collection in Sussex, Barry
at Borough market and Simon Russell of the NACM.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/04/2007_46_thu.shtml

I just wondered if this might strike a chord with some people.

There’s a Facebook group

Real cider is the product of fermenting fresh apple juice.

The amount of apple juice which went into the final product must be between 85 and 100% and should be clearly stated on the container it is sold in or dispensed from.

No artificial sweeteners, flavourings or colourings
are permitted.

( For real perry substitute pear juice ) ukcider 30/11/2003

The point about ingredients labelling is something which is actively campaigned for by ukcider. We believe that cider drinkers of all types deserve to know exactly what goes into the products, and that this can only help the craft or artisan perry and cider makers who work with the unadulterated full juice.

The Real Ale organisation camra, on the other hand, has a definition which allows for the addition of extraneous sugar “to aid fermentation” but then goes on to suggest that “Ideally, however the minimum juice content should not be lower than 90% volume.” which is fine.

There is then a controversial clause in their description of “how to make real cider” which appears to condone the following practice under that heading:

A number of the larger producers will add sugar at the fermentation stage, enabling the cider to reach 12-14%abv, and then it is diluted down before it is sold (the legal limit for cider is 8.5%abv).

We were assured on 9th July that the above is not intended to cause ambiguity and will be altered on the website to avoid any confusion.

 ”We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to oppose the abolition of the small scale cider producer exemption.”

More details from petition creator

Ever since duty was introduced on cider and Perry in the 70s there has been a small scale cider exemption in place.

This allows small scale producers to escape duty if they produce less than 70 hectolitres in a year.

This exemption was put in place to protect the rural producers for whom small scale cider/Perry production was part of their rural culture.

Currently it acts as an incentive for small scale producers to be given the opportunity to perfect their ‘wares’ without an onerous tax burden.

The EU Commission are setting up a working group to address special excise duty conditions relating to small scale industries this is likely to result in the removal of the exemption

I petition the prime minister to instruct his ministers to resist this to ensure the diverse small cider producers in this country can continue to produce cider.

If the exemption is removed many small cider producers will cease production and a vital part of Great Britain’s heritage will be lost forever.

Main Page on ukcider.co.uk/wiki updated 

3CCPA Committee Proposal

The committee of the 3CCPA met on Monday 23rd April 2007 to discuss
the issue and consider a formal response to the NACM and formulate a
consensus lobbying position. As a result of the discussions held it
is proposed that – if there is a plan by the EU to remove the current
exemption – a sliding duty scale is put into place instead, with the
first 70 hI (Ca. 1500 gals) converted into a special band of zero
rate cider duty available to all cider makers. Thereafter, as an
encouragement to small rural-based businesses to grow and develop,
increasing levels of duty would be paid on increasing volumes up to
an upper limit of 700hl (Ca. 15,000 gals), after which the full level of
duty would be payable,

In principle, this would be similar to the sliding scale of duty
available to beer brewers currently operating in the UK and other
European Member States and would provide a real encouragement to
rural business, farm diversification and artisan and craft cider makers.