In the Agroforestry Tent at Groundswell 2026 on July 1st, a session on the future of commercial nut production in the UK brought together Rowan Dumper-Pollard of the Organic Research Centre, Andrew and Laurie Kent of Glastonbury Nut Farm, David Tame of TR Tame & Son, and farmer and Nuffield Scholar Tom McVeigh. Rowan Dumper-Pollard reflects.
The discussion centred on a practical question that will become increasingly important if UK nut production expands: how can nuts be harvested efficiently under British conditions?
Drawing on his Nuffield Scholarship, Tom McVeigh set out the wider opportunity for commercial nut growing in the UK, alongside some of the barriers that still limit expansion. Hazelnuts and walnuts have obvious attractions: they are perennial, relatively high value, have long shelf lives and can go directly into human food markets.
But commercial viability depends on much more than establishing trees. Andrew and Laurie’s experience at Glastonbury Nut Farm illustrates the scale of that challenge. Across two Somerset sites they now have around 11,000 hazelnut and walnut trees, but building an orchard of that size involves long establishment periods, cultivar choices and adapting management to site conditions.
David Tame’s experience growing walnuts in Warwickshire highlighted the next part of the equation: once trees begin producing, growers need efficient ways to harvest, process and add value to the crop. Handheld vacuum equipment forms part of an effective harvesting set-up at their current scale and their work processing lower grade nuts into nut oil offers a different route to market and longer sales period.
The issue explored in this research project however is what factors enable larger-scale mechanisation and whether orchard size and market demand are sufficient to justify the investment.
The ADOPT project has therefore focused on whether machinery already used in European nut-growing regions can work in the UK. Andrew and Laurie in their visits to Poland, Spain, Italy and France showed that many established systems come with compromises.
Tree-shaking machinery may risk damage to younger trees and did not appear especially time-efficient. Larger Polish systems collect nuts onto tarps, but can require several operators, creating a labour requirement that may be difficult to justify in the UK. A Sicma B440 XL telehandler-mounted system looked more promising, although fitting the harvesting kit would require the machine to be adapted in Italy. Tractor-mounted Italian sweepers also offered a relatively simple approach, but their performance on wetter, grass-covered British orchard floors remained uncertain.
The project team ultimately selected a reconditioned AMB Rousset X15 from France. Its more substantial sweeping system looked better able to cope with grassier conditions, while an internal cleaning system helps separate some of the soil and vegetation gathered with the crop.
The X15 (above) arrived in the UK this summer and was demonstrated in early July. The harvest-season trial will now test what really matters: performance in variable weather, on different terrain and at different grass heights; harvesting speed; and the orchard scale and tree density needed to justify the investment. If the machine works well, rapid harvesting may also allow several passes through an orchard which is not possible with manual harvesting and will help growers collect nuts before squirrels do.
This article was written for The Organic Grower OG75 Autumn 2026.
