Äppelriket

Äppelriket Österlen is a member company owned by about 65 fruit growers mainly from Skåne, but also from Blekinge, Småland and Östergötland. 

The main task is to sell and market the fruit of our members. We store, sort and pack the fruit in our central packing plant in Kivik and out in the growers' own packing plants. We use Äppelriket as a brand. We harvest 10-15 million kilos of fruit annually.

Thanks to modern storage methods, a larger part of the autumn apple harvest can be preserved and more people can eat Swedish apples for most of the year. The method as Äppelriket Österlen uses, based on the apples being placed in cool rooms with controlled air quality and temperature.

After harvest, the apples are cooled gradually until the temperature is 1-4 degrees. In the warehouses, the oxygen content is low, only about 1 percent. In ordinary air, it is about 21 percent. The lower oxygen content means that the ripening stops and the shelf life is extended.