Promotion news.

We are delighted to announce the promotion of Peter Bukowski from Production Manager to Director of Farming in recognition of his significant personal contribution to helping our business to grow. 

Peter has worked with Goatham’s since 2012 and on joining, he was tasked with maintaining an ambitious new planting programme currently at nearly 2.5 million new fruit trees, as well as the day to day management of the orchards, sited across our 28 farms totalling 2,830 acres in Kent.

Peter has also helped us to revive the fortunes of British Conference Pears, one of our major objectives over the next 20 years. Over the last five years, we have embarked on the largest programme of pear planting believed to have taken place in the UK for over 40 years. This is thanks to three-year trials set up and led by Peter and his team. This is believed to be the template for how Conference Pears can now be sustainably grown in the UK in the future.

Award winning Peter was named the Best Production Manager at the Grower of the Year Awards 2015 where he was praised by judges for his wide and extremely diverse, all-encompassing knowledge of apple, pear and cherry production and his ability as a people person. Other highlights for Peter and the team have been winning the East Kent Fruit Society Orchard of the Year 2016 in August, with one of their Zari apple orchards at Shrubbery Farm near Sandwich, Kent. And in 2017, they scooped first prize in eight categories including Best Commercial Orchard.

Peter and his team are currently planting 380,000 new fruit trees this year, just weeks after completing the planting of over 220,000 trees in 2018.

Clive Goatham comments: “I am incredibly proud of Peter and his team and all of their achievements which have helped our business to grow to where it is today. Peter is a very talented, knowledgeable and hard-working individual who inspires the team around him. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the last seven years and I very much look forward to what the future holds and with Peter in his new role.”

Peter Bukowski comments: “I am delighted to become Director of Farming and I would like to also thank the team who work with me for all of their hard work and dedication. This is a really exciting time for top fruit growing here in the UK with some new varieties and technology enabling us to grow even better quality and tasting fruit with significant yields, enabling us to compete globally with other growers.”