Proprietary Variety Management announced plans this spring to introduce a new red apple, Magic Star, into the U.S. market.
Magic Star is the brand name for the cultivar SQ159, which was bred in the Netherlands by breeding and marketing company Fresh Forward. It’s a dark red, sweet, scab-resistant apple resulting from a cross between Elise, a prior release from Fresh Forward, and an unnamed scab-resistant breeding parent, according to a news release from PVM, a Yakima, Washington-based new cultivar commercialization company.
“We have been monitoring Magic Star since 2019 and recently harvested the first crop from our test orchard in the Yakima Valley,” Kevin Brandt, chief operating officer of PVM, said in a statement. “We were extremely pleased to see how well the cultivar performed in Washington state.”
Magic Star has been marketed for three seasons in several European markets, and the consumer reception encouraged Fresh Forward and PVM to introduce the apple into the U.S. market as well.
—by Kate Prengaman
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