Projects

Elgin Orchard

Elgin's Orchard Ltd were awarded funding to process apples, other fruit and vegetables grown in the north east of Scotland to produce bottled juice.

A new orchard of 1,900 trees was planted at Kirkhill Farm, Elgin Ltd with the intention of producing an average of 40,000kg of apples each year, sufficient to make 30,000 litres of juice.

Many other apples and different sorts of fruit grown in Moray currently go unused each year and are available to be turned into juice. Carrots are an important crop in Moray and carrot juice is an increasingly popular drink, but like apple juice, it is not made in Moray, but could be.

The LEADER funding contributed to the purchase of machinery to handle, wash, crush and press fruit and vegetables and to filter, pasteurise and bottle the juice and label the bottles. The machinery was to be installed on a large trailer pulled by a new 4x4 vehicle to allow a juice making service to be offered around north east Scotland. The funding also covered some materials to start production and a new website needed as part of the marketing of the products and service.

Moray is a great food and drink making county, but it produces almost no apple and other fruit and vegetable juice and yet the area has a perfect climate and soils for doing so. There is a growing demand for high quality local fruit and vegetable juice from the public, which could be supplied through shops, hotels and restaurants.