OFC5Organic conversion – top fruit

What it actually is

The orchard member of the organic conversion family, whose shared machinery is on the OFC3 page. This version covers commercial top fruit, apples, pears, plums, and bush crops such as gooseberries and redcurrants, but not fruit grown for alcoholic drinks, on permanent horticultural land. Because perennial crops convert slowly, the action runs up to 3 consecutive annual applications rather than the family's usual two, and it is static, as an orchard could hardly be otherwise. The family's rules hold: approved plan, standards from the start, conversion completed and the land registered fully organic before the end date, no previously organic land, and the evidence file includes conversion maps, sale receipts and photographs alongside the certificate.

Source: GOV.UK, OFC5 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page, paid during conversion. Multiplied out:

Source: arithmetic on the payment rate shown at the top of this page, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. The 5 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

The family's market-first judgement, at orchard scale: organic fruit carries a real premium and organic fruit growing carries real scab, canker and codling years, and the three conversion seasons are spent learning the second while being paid the first at conventional rates. The rate above is the largest in the family and still a contribution rather than cover. The cider and perry exclusion is worth reading twice: fruit destined for alcoholic drinks does not qualify, so the juice, dessert and culinary markets are the ones the sum runs on.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; eligibility from GOV.UK, OFC5 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The judgements are Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.

Does it work, and what makes it work better

This section is what we have found in published sources about the practice this action pays for. It is not scheme guidance, it is not Defra's or the RPA's view, and it adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

The family's evidence, on the OFC3 page, contains the one finding that belongs to orchards specifically: within the graded Trade-off assessment, 7 studies, 55 per cent effectiveness, 52 per cent certainty, 64 per cent harms, the two trials that found higher soil carbon under organic management were both in orchards, in Italy and the USA. The harms side, lower yields, is also nowhere felt more sharply than in fruit. The ungraded butterfly and moth catalogue's richer organic farms complete the picture the premium market sells.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 895, Enhancing Soil Fertility synopsis, checked 23/08/2026. The fuller account is on the OFC3 page.

What you actually have to do

Protect the trees from grazing livestock and pests such as deer and rabbits, so they are not seriously damaged, and manage weeds and vegetation around the base of establishing trees. Register the orchard as in conversion, follow the approved plan, comply with organic standards from the conversion period's start to the action's end date, and complete conversion with the land registered fully organic before the action ends, applying year by year for up to 3 consecutive years. Keep the plan, the valid certificate, the conversion maps, sale receipts and photographs.

Source: GOV.UK, OFC5 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Things worth watching

This section is Tilth's own reading of where this action is easy to get wrong. It is not scheme guidance, it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA, and none of it adds a requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

Three applications now, not two. The longer conversion means a third consecutive application to remember, and a third end-date to hit with the fully organic registration.

The alcohol line runs through the fruit's destiny, not its variety. The same apples can be dessert fruit or cider fruit; what disqualifies is growing them for alcoholic drinks. Mixed-outlet orchards need the plan and the paperwork to say clearly which fruit is which.

Sale receipts are named evidence. Unusually for this scheme, what you sold and where is part of the file, which sits naturally with the destiny point above.

The standards change the storework too. Organic fruit standards follow the crop into store and packhouse treatments. The conversion plan that stops at the orchard gate is incomplete.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, OFC5 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Whether your fruit has an organic buyer at a premium that survives three years of learning organic growing is the question, and it is a packhouse and contract question before it is an agronomic one. The three years' true cost lands in your own crop records, which is where Tilth keeps them. Request an invite.