CIDER producers – and quite a few drinkers – were up in arms recently when the Government announced plans to raise the duty on the drink and bring it more in line with beers and wines.

Large-scale bottlers, including Herefordshire’s Westons Cider, were worried that the proposed tax increase could lead to job cuts and have an impact on the environment – and, of course, hit their profits.

Now that the general election has been called the rise in duty has been shelved – but it could be back on the agenda if Labour is victorious on May 6. This won’t worry one Worcestershire farmers’ market producer, because he does not see a tax increase as such a negative thing.

Tom Norbury, of Norbury’s Norrest Farm and Cider Company, said: “We are a small scale producer so any rise in duty, if and when it is introduced, won’t have a great deal of impact on us.

“I think the rise in duty isn’t a bad thing. Cider is so cheap in the supermarkets and so much police time is spent dealing with drunks – adding the duty is just a way of controlling drinking and changing behaviour.”

Mr Norbury’s single variety cider is made from Kingston Black apples that he buys locally. He said “It’s delicious.

Most ciders are a blend but this is unusual because it’s made with just one variety. It’s £3.75 for a 75cl bottle.”

His blended cider, made with cider apples grown on his brother’s farm and eating apples from his own farm near Malvern, is called Black Bull, after the bull on the family’s crest.

“It’s lovely. Our ciders are made with no added water, no additives, no colours and no taste enhancers and you can taste the difference.”

The Norbury family have been making cider since 1979. He said: “We don’t want to compete with the big cider makers. I think Bulmers produce every day the same quantity that we have produced over the past 30 years.”

For Mr Norbury, it is quality, not quantity, that counts.

Norbury’s Norrest Farm and Cider Company will be found at the Angel Place farmers’ markets in Worcester – as soon as the premises licence is issued by Worcester City Council.

Today’s farmers’ market is in High Street, Bromsgrove, from 9am to 5pm. Next weekend’s markets are in Abbey Road, Malvern, from 9am to 2pm on Saturday, April 17, and Angel Place, Worcester, from 9am to 3pm, on Sunday, April 18.