Ross Goatham, managing director at AC Goatham & Son said: “To enable our business to continue to grow, we have a programme of long-term investment in place. We need to have this vital, modern infrastructure available to store the fruit from our new orchards after harvest. Our successful growing technology means that we grow significantly more fruit per acre than traditional British orchards.”

“We are planning to build new facilities like this at some of our other individual farms, which also helps to reduce vehicle movements during the busy harvest period. On farm storage offers better protection for the fruit once harvested and allows us to reduce the field heat from it as soon as possible. This successful combination of growing and cold storage technology ensures that our fruit stores for longer. Ultimately our goal is for British consumers to enjoy our British grown fruit all year round.”

Construction manager Dean Giles of Storage Control Systems Ltd said: “We are very pleased and proud to handover our successfully completed, state of the art 12 store (9,488 bin) CA Store project to AC Goatham & Son. We pride ourselves on our expertise and experience with Controlled Atmosphere construction and instrumentation and are always confident that we will live up to and surpass our customers’ expectations, while also delivering the stores within the time frame specified.

“We would also thank our associate sub-contractors for a well-managed and seamless build, which enabled us to test and complete works for this season’s fruit, on time for the harvest.”

AC Goatham & Son has 27 farms across Medway and Kent and annually grows around 250m apples and 50m pears.