EVERY year disappointed apple and pear growers across Victoria throw out countless amounts of hail damaged or second-grade fruit unfit for supermarket and fresh food outlet shelves.

But a new venture formed between three Harcourt family-owned businesses will give growers the chance to use downgraded fruit to its full potential.

Late last year, the owners of The Little Red Apple, Henry of Harcourt, and Bress Wine, Cider and Produce began the combined venture to procure apples and pears from growers to make ciders under the Harcourt Perry and Cider Makers label.

“What we’re doing is value adding. We’re taking the fruit that would otherwise be regarded as unsaleable and providing an outlet for it,” Little Red Apple owner Simon Frost said.

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“It’s going to be fantastic for Harcourt growers in particular because it will provide them an outlet that’s close and accessible.”

In an industry open to the wrath of sudden hailstorms, droughts and floods, the venture has been welcomed with open arms.

Geoffrey Thompson Fruit Packing has already sold more than 200 bins to the group.

The Shepparton based fruit grower sells apples to the likes of Coles and Woolworths and deals with the high standards placed on the presentation of fruit every day.

Director Peter Thompson described the outlet provided by the group as “golden”.

“The standards for apples are so high and rightly so. But it only takes a very small blemish, a bruise the size of a 5 cent piece for example, to have the fruit downgraded to juice,” Mr Thompson said.

“It’s great to have these extra outlets. With apple juice being a perishable product you can’t hold onto to it forever. Some years we’ve just had to dump the product or give it to the local farmers who feed it to their stock.”

The Frost family is responsible for procuring the apples and pears for Harcourt Perry and Cider Makers which are all pressed and settled at the family’s Barker’s Creek site.

The juice then goes to Bress where it is fermented and blended under the careful eye of Michael Henry and his father Drew, along with Bress owner Adam Marks.

When the fermentation and blending processes are complete, the cider is taken up to Mildura where it is bottled by Best Bottlers.

With cider identified as the fastest growing alcoholic beverage segment in Australia, hopes are high for Harcourt Perry and Cider. The inspiration to make the products “more accessible” to every cider lover has driven the flavours of the label’s ciders towards the more “mainstream” style of cider flavours.

Production of the first lot of apple and pear ciders – some 20,000 bottles – was completed at The Little Red Apple recently.

The ciders will be sold at independent retailers, local restaurants and the three Harcourt cellar doors and Mr Frost said they had received reorders from a number of outlets.

The three businesses are also in the midst of investigating sparkling apple and pear juice opportunities.

“The response has been unbelievable but it’s still early days. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.

Mr Marks said the “seed” for this joint venture was originally planted by the former Victorian Labour government and their desire to establish “agriculture clusters” throughout the state.

Mr Marks said even in years with no hail, their venture would help give growers forward projections on quantities that Harcourt Perry and Cider require.

“This will reduce growers costs for there would be less reliance on keeping fruit in cool store waiting to be sold to more uncertain markets.”