Many orchards in the West Country were swamped for weeks during the wettest winter on record.
The floods left the UK’s 17,300 acres under threat and there are fears that many of the millions of trees planted in the last ten years may not survive.
Apple producers have enjoyed a surge in demand in recent years, but will now have to wait until May to see if the fruit trees will bloom. In the recent days of sunshine, some blossoms have come out, but there is still some way to go to see how many trees will perform.
Experts say that it takes only 14 days of water cover to destroy the root system of apple trees.
The UK has about 480 cider-makers in the country and consumption in Britain has been rising to around 1.5 billion pints each year.
The cider industry is worth £3 billion with cider and perry accounting for 9% of all alcohol consumed nationally. Bulmers is the largest cider producer in the world.
A decade ago the industry used 110,000 tonnes of apples grown domestically, but now 250,000 tonnes are in demand. Last year the ideal weather created a bumper crop, the best in a decade.
