A new variety of apple from New Zealand is set for widespread growth over the next few years as consumer awareness and demand increases around the world.
The Plumac variety – which has been developed by McGrath Nurseries from the Waikato district of New Zealand – has had a controlled release world-wide over the past few years, selling under the registered apple brand KORU®.
McGrath Nurseries director Andy McGrath says almost all the test markets have responded highly to the fruit.
“I get letters and the public reaction is amazing. I get one letter [or email] to me personally every 5000 cartons, and that’s pretty constant. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” he says, adding that the response speaks for the quality of the apple.
“In terms of quality it’s right up there. I’ve spent my whole life in programs that breed apples and this is the best apple for production, storage and consumer quality that I’ve seen since Gala. So it’s the best apple in over 50 years,” he says.
Mr McGrath describes the apple as “always hard and crisp”, with a sweet, rich and aromatic flavour.
“It’s a real mouthful of flavour and texture and you just want to go back and have more of it,” he says.
Currently, the majority of Plumac apples are sold in the USA, but Mr McGrath says plans to expand globally are in motion now.
“We haven’t had enough to keep up with demand for the east coast of the US. I think we sold in 40 US states last year,” he says.
“We’ve got quite a lot of production starting in America now and plans for production in other countries, so our volume is going to grow over the next few years quite significantly.”
With so many other varieties of apples already established, Mr McGrath says it’s important to make sure Plumac apples KORU® brand are marketed well.
“Developing these things you’ve got to be very clean about it, you’ve got to be very disciplined. I’ve seen many apples fail over the years because of bad marketing and other mistakes.”
In the US, the KORU® is marketed by three of the biggest companies in the industry – Oneonta, Borton Fruit and New York Apple Sales and Exports – with a lot of their budget focused on point-of-sale awareness.
“These guys sell about 25 or 27 million cartons between them, not including Korus, so they’re big, experienced, switched on marketers,” Mr McGrath says.
“As the volume increases we now have to start marketing more broadly to take a basket of territories.”
Approximately 40,000 cartons of KORU® apples were exported from New Zealand this year, with an additional 5000 from US trees. Mr McGrath says the next season is forecast to yield around 100,000 cartons “out to a million” from New Zealand and 2 million from the USA in the future, with plans to continue planting locally for the next few years to keep up with the growing demand for the fruit.
