The apple section was once as simple as red, yellow and green.
In the decades since, as new red and bicolor options proliferated, the stalwart Golden Delicious continued to anchor the yellow category. To marketers, that looks like opportunity.
“The U.S. market is a very texture-focused market and the yellow apple that we have, Golden Delicious, it doesn’t really have that texture experience like a Honeycrisp offers, but it’s an important part of retail because it offers this really important color break within the apple set — so it’s not just a sea of red,” said Brianna Shales, marketing director of Stemilt Growers. “So, for us, it was really, ‘How do we find a new yellow apple that is going to meet that consumer expectation for the crunch and the flavor and kind of reignite that yellow apple category?’”
Spoiler alert: Stemilt did find one, a Honeycrisp and Aurora Golden Gala cross that debuted in January with the brand name Aura Apple.
But other Washington marketing desks see the same opportunity. FirstFruit Farms has grown Opal since 2009. And Giumarra Cos. recently licensed New Zealand-bred Lemonade for North America and harvested the first Washington crop last fall. Meanwhile, the growers behind CMI Orchards are testing Yello, a cultivar grown by two major Italian companies.
“We’ve been, like everybody else, looking if we can get a new Golden-type that’s got a better eating quality for the consumer and that’s going to get the grower more value than, say, a commodity variety with these ridiculously high growing costs,” said Scott McDougall, president of McDougall and Sons.
He is still evaluating a test planting but likes what he’s seen from Yello, the brand name for the Japan-bred Shinano Gold cultivar, which is a Golden Delicious and Senshu cross. It has been grown and managed in Italy for several years by VOG and VIP, two major marketers that are looking to sublicense to producers in other regions.
Partnering with an established apple brand also appealed to Giumarra Cos., said Jason Bushong, Wenatchee, Washington, division manager for the California-based produce sales company. The company manages proprietary stone fruit cultivars and was looking for an apple opportunity, he said.
“We saw the bicolor space was getting pretty crowded, and our main New Zealand grower came to us with this apple,” Bushong said. Lemonade is the brand name for PremA153, a Gala and Braeburn cross developed in New Zealand and commercialized by the Yummy Fruit Co. of Hawkes Bay.
Giumarra Cos. began importing it into the North American market several years ago, Bushong said, and the customer response for the sweet-tart flavor and “snappy texture” was encouraging.
“With those attributes, we saw a winner,” he said.
So, four years ago, Giumarra purchased the North American rights and began looking for growers to plant the cultivar. Currently, 300 acres are planted in Washington, Bushong said, and the company is looking for more growers to build the program.
A small, first commercial crop was harvested last year, but retail partners already know the apple — thanks to the New Zealand imports. Now, it’s a matter of making a favorable impression on more consumers — and the color and name give it an advantage, he said.
“We want to capitalize on the name that evokes the lemonade feel, and it looks like a lemon on the shelf,” Bushong said. “People see the name and want to try it.”
Then, the eating experience leads to repeat purchases, he added.
The Aura Apple introduction, which Stemilt Growers launched in January with a small volume, also aimed to provide a distinctive look in the apple space, Shales said. The branding capitalizes on the sunny vibes of the sweet, round, yellow fruit.
“It has to catch the eye and be something that they’ll remember,” she said. “A lot of the success in that work is partnering with retailers that are going to merchandise it really effectively: building the great display, helping call attention to it through signage or social media, telling the story of what makes it special.”
Bred by Regal Fruit International, the cultivar — known as Regal D27-16 — rose to the top over many years of evaluation, demonstrating it was a good-tasting, yellow apple that could withstand commercial handling, said Rob Blakey, Stemilt’s head of research and development.
Regal has other new Golden-type varieties being tested by a few of its marketing partners as well, said Jordan Wilks, Regal’s general manager.
“There are some other yellow varieties within the Regal program that I think are very good, but they are still being evaluated,” he said. “It speaks to an overall trend we’ve seen recently of some marketing desks trying to find a new yellow apple as a way to differentiate themselves on the retail shelves.”
Washington State University’s breeding program also has a few yellow-fruited selections under early stages of evaluation, said pome fruit breeder Kate Evans.
“Yellow is one of my targets, yes, but it’s difficult,” she said. Like blush cherries, golden-type apples tend to show markings more easily. “If new, high-quality yellow apples were easy, we would be flooded with them.”
—by Kate Prengaman
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