National Association of Cider Makers: Informing sector-specific capacity building

Objectives: To develop a summary of climate projections relevant to the UK Cider industry that will lead to future capacity building activities. This will have an awareness raising function as well as supporting cider-makers and orcharders in making decisions that are dependent on the future climate.

• How they used UKCP09 dummy data

Assessment of supply

• Key findings were used to show an overview of future climate in cider apple growing regions.
• Pre-prepared maps and graphs were used to aid orchard planting decisions.
• A threshold was identified for trees to enter winter dormancy and the Threshold Detector was run to explore the likelihood of the dormancy condition being met under the projected future climate.

Assessment of demand

• Plume plots were used to understand changes in average temperature over time, so that future demand for cider could be assessed.
• A short report was written which incorporated all the information generated and described the selected climate impacts together with summarizing how the presented output could be used.

• What could they do next?

They could communicate the results through the National Association of Cider Makers fact sheets and articles in the trade press.

There is potential for a student to developed the results into another report on climate change.

• What they learnt about UKCP09

The amount of information available in UKCP09 forces you to think carefully about what is important and how to present it.

Ideally soil moisture information would have been available so that it could be used instead of precipitation.

• Contact details: Richard Heathcote, Sustainable Development Manager, Scottish & Newcastle

• Download the full report (pdf, 60 KB)