APPLE growers in Herefordshire and Worcestershire have been boosted by a commitment from cider giants Bulmers to keep using local produce.

The Hereford employer, which has recently been taken over by brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle, said it would do its utmost to help the region's fruit growers by reinstating a one-month payment system to contract cider apple growers.

Bulmers had agreed with farmers for payments to be spread over several months during the height of the company's financial crisis before the takeover.

At the Golden Apple Awards lunch, which was held at the farm of this year's winners Nigel and Beryl Rolinson, of Putley, near Ledbury, Willie Crawshay, Bulmers' new general manager of cider maker Bulmers, said fruit growers could rest assured that the company would continue to work with them.

"No one in his right mind would jeopardise a proven and successful working partnership built up over so many decades," he said.

"When the chips were down for Bulmers a year ago, you the growers stood steadfast and loyal behind the company.

"The future is in our own hands. I, for one, am confident that together we can make a success of it."

He said that it was essential to maintain a financially viable cider fruit growing industry and that growing cider apples was a long-term venture needing stability. Pricing for the majority of this autumn's crop remains the same as last season.

n Nigel and Beryl Rolinson won the Bulmers Golden Apple, which recognises the region's best-managed orchards.

The couple own seven orchards on their 67-acre fruit farm in Putney.

The judges were impressed by the quality of tree management and orchard husbandry.

The winning orchard is a seven-acre block planted in 1984.