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Heineken Uproots Huge Apple Orchard as Cider Sales Slip
Heineken is a huge multinational corporation and it’s affected by market realities like supply and demand just like any other company. But when the answer to those issues is destroying an apple orchard, it’s hard to see it as just business.
Heineken owns Penrhos Orchard, a 300-acre site in Wales that was planted in 1997. The company said last year that it wants to sell that land because demand for cider has declined and left it with a “surplus of apples.” It said the apples grown in the orchard are bittersweet, meaning they have no use besides making cider. So Heineken, in line with the Wildlife Act, uprooted the entire orchard, which was the size of 140 football pitches (or soccer fields) and shredded all the wood for biomass.
Download and listen to the audio version below and click here to subscribe to the Today in Manufacturing podcast.
Heineken is a huge multinational corporation and it’s affected by market realities like supply and demand just like any other company. But when the answer to those issues is destroying an apple orchard, it’s hard to see it as just business.
Heineken owns Penrhos Orchard, a 300-acre site in Wales that was planted in 1997. The company said last year that it wants to sell that land because demand for cider has declined and left it with a “surplus of apples.” It said the apples grown in the orchard are bittersweet, meaning they have no use besides making cider. So Heineken, in line with the Wildlife Act, uprooted the entire orchard, which was the size of 140 football pitches (or soccer fields) and shredded all the wood for biomass.
Download and listen to the audio version below and click here to subscribe to the Today in Manufacturing podcast.