TRADITIONAL British fruit is facing a crisis, North Wilt-shire MP James Gray has warned.

Official figures unearthed by the MP have revealed orchards are in rapid decline.

The area under cultivation for English apples, pears and cherries has almost halved since 1994, the Govern-ment has admitted.

More than 14,000 hectares were taken up by apple growing in 1994.

By 2003, this had dropped to just 7,700 hectares.

Mr Gray said: "It's a substantial loss and bad news for British fruit."

And the MP said the situation was set to get worse because of European Union rules.

He said: "Changes to the Common Agricultural Policy mean farmers will not get any subsidy for orchards, but will for fields.

"That gives an incentive to rip up fruit trees and leave the land empty."

Mr Gray has previously called for supermarkets to stock more British fruit and he even branded French apples tasteless and unappetising.

The Tory MP, a party spokesman on rural affairs, said: "I'm a strong supporter of British fruit and would urge shoppers to buy more home grown produce.

"The trouble is you're hard pushed to find it in shops because there's so much French stuff while the British fruit is equally as good."