During the summer, the Consortium’s production areas, in South Tyrol – Südtirol, have enjoyed enough water and there have been good temperature differences between night and day, ideal conditions for growing excellent apples.
“This year, once again, we are able to guarantee our clients complete availability of a wide range of top-quality apples, over the twelve months, meaning that everyone will be able to find their ideal fruit, according to their requirements,” Walter Pardatscher, Director of the Consortium, comments. “Now the challenge will be to deal with the complexity of the markets and the production costs in order to be able to give our associates the right acknowledgement for their effort and diligence.”
Regarding the market demand, the first signs are positive. “Unlike last season, this year it seems that we already have a gap on all our main markets,” explains Klaus Hölzl, Sales Manager at VOG.
Varieties and brands
True to the promise of being the Home of apples, VOG places at its clients’ disposal one of the most complete ranges of varieties and brands, and this year’s harvest confirms this.
After last year’s decrease, the amounts of Royal Gala have risen to the levels of previous harvests. Average levels, also, for Golden Delicious, while Granny Smiths and Red Delicious will suffer from a slight drop, in line with the rest of the Italian production. Fuji and Braeburn complete the main traditional varieties, which today, represent the largest share of the amounts harvested by the Consortium.
Likewise, the volumes of the most important club apples remain stable, including: Pink Lady®, Kanzi®, Jazz™, Envy™ and Yello®. The increase in new plantations will lead to an important increase in varieties such as Cosmic Crisp®, Giga®, RedPop®, Joya®, Crimson Snow® and SweeTango™.
Marketing programme
One of the first campaigns to start off will be Marlene®, the ‘Daughter of the Alps’, which will extend the wheel of aromas, origin and flavour to create added value around the most classic varieties. It will be followed by SweeTango™, proposed as the “apple that brings you the flavour of summer.”
In October it will be the turn of Kanzi®, with a campaign centred on energy, followed by Envy™ with the topic of the five senses and its premium positioning, and Yello®, a real speciality amongst connoisseurs. In November, the commercial campaign for Pink Lady® will start, the last variety to be harvested. The second half of the season will once again concentrate on Cosmic Crisp®, Giga® and RedPop.
