Lifetime award for apple expert

For over 40 years Kevin Sanders has dedicated his life to apples and the growth of the horticulture industry, and now his efforts have been recognised.

Apple grower Kevin Sanders at Three Bridges. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Kevin Sanders has dedicated his life to apples and the growth of the horticulture industry, and now his efforts have been recognised, with a lifetime achievement award from Apple and Pear Australia Limited.

Growing fruit for over 40 years with his two brothers at Sanders Apples in the Yarra Valley, Kevin’s long list of services and accolades include being the inaugural director of APAL, serving as chairman of the Apple and Pear Research Development Committee, and being awarded the prestigious Department of Primary Industry Victoria Science Award for ‘Innovation in Agriculture’ – the only horticulture winner of this award.

“It’s a pretty humbling experience to be frank. It’s a pretty special thing to see the names that have gone before you. They’re my peers, the people I’ve grown up with and (I’ve had) ideals of becoming like them,” Kevin said.

Kevin Sanders. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Kevin counts a collaborative international project on flesh browning in Cripps Pink apples, the introduction of the Productivity Irrigation Pests and Soils program, and introducing the ‘Future Orchards’ program to Australia in 2005 as three of the most satisfying achievements of his career.

‘(The Future Orchards) program was about modernising growing practices. I saw what the Italians had done in the late 50s and early 60s, in modernising their orchards to great effect. I spoke to people in Italy during one of my many visits, brought the idea back to Australia … and it’s been a life changer for everybody in the industry,” he said.

“At the time a lot of orchards in Australia were planting less than 1500 trees per hectare … now currently we have about 4500 trees per hectare.

“(Producers nationally have gone from) averaging less than 20 tonnes per hectare to 54 tonnes per hectare on average last year.”

Kevin takes comfort in that the knowledge of these projects and the improvements they have gained will continue long after he has gone.

“People forget there is so much science behind our industry, and it’s just gathering that information and putting it to good use to improve the quality of food that we deliver to the public every day of the week,” he said.