Summerland Varieties
This is the next Canadian apple soon to become available to Canadian growers. This tri-coloured apple of yellow, orange and red is firm, crisp, juicy with sweet aromatic undertones of tropical fruit.
The recent launch of Cosmic Crisp apples in Washington State has created a lot of buzz in the industry, as have the various “club apple” programs that have been developed world-wide with names like Jazz, Envy and SweeTango. Marketers describe the global consumer demand for apples as “stable”, with little upside for growth. The apple section in grocery stores is crowded, and to grab a buyer’s attention, producers look for new varieties that will help improve their returns.
The market interest and the gains that have come for BC orchardists who have planted Ambrosia are attractive, but at what point will the market become saturated? We have about 9600 acres of apples planted in BC. Jim Campbell, chair of the New Varieties Development Council estimates that about 2100 acres of those are Ambrosia.
Over the last five years of the replant program, growers have changed up about 210 acres a year, notes Carl Withler, the Ministry of Agriculture tree fruits and grape specialist. Ambrosia appears to have peaked in popularity in 2017, with 156 acres replanted. In 2019 that was down to 59 acres (this does not include bare land plantings or growers who chose not to apply for replant). Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are the other popular apple replant varieties for BC growers..
Cosmic Crisp is the first apple to be developed specifically by and for the Washington industry, with some $500 million USD investment. It’s exclusive to Washington growers as a managed variety, but not a club program, which often requires grower investment and fees.
We have a very successful track record of developing new tree fruit varieties in BC. The breeding program at AAFC Summerland, together with the commercializing experience of Summerland Varieties Corporation (SVC) has gained worldwide success at developing and distributing new cherry varieties such as Sweetheart, Sentennial, Staccato, and Suite Note. There have been some apple varieties as well (Salish, Aurora Golden Gala). But a new apple that is in the pipeline is creating a lot of interest across Canada.
SVC Business Development Manager Nick Ibuki calls it the ‘next Ambrosia’. “It’s a sweet apple,” says Ibuki. “People taste tropical equatorial flavours with background notes of mangoes, and that matches the orangey red colour.”
Dr. Cheryl Hampson was the fruit tree breeding specialist at AAFC Summerland breeding program in 2000, when the apple was first crossed. The new variety doesn’t have a name yet, just a number, and Sean Beirnes, General Manager of SVC would rather keep that quiet just now.
“We should have trees available for commercial plantings across Canada by 2023,” says Beirnes, “and that would put apples on store shelves by 2025-26.” There are currently pre-commercial trial plantings underway at 43 sites across Canada in BC, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as at select small international sites.
Twenty-five years seems like a long time to develop a new apple tree, but Beirnes explains the need to mitigate risks for growers. “We are a small and fragmented industry in Canada, and four acres out of 30 for a new variety is much more of a risk than four acres out of 300 in another growing region,” he explains. “We must do our due diligence, so that when we tell industry this is an apple you should get behind, they can really get behind it.”
So far it’s very encouraging Ibuki reports. “This apple just keeps ticking all the boxes,” he says. “It impresses us over again at each level of testing.”
Ibuki calls the new apple very grower friendly, “You get a nice columnar tree that grows apples in the 72-100 size range,” he notes. “And we see a target of 60 bins to an acre or higher.”
As well as planting, growing and tasting trials, the new variety has been run over a packing line and tested in both cold and controlled atmosphere storage. “They harvested 74 bins this season,” notes Ibuki. “The sub-commercial trial pack-out was more than 90 per cent extra fancy grade.”
It stores very wel, Beirnes adds, which is important for BC growers. “We want a nice fresh apple when it comes out of storage,” he says, adding it also has a good shelf life. “Some apples you put out there, by the time the consumer gets around to eating them they are losing their texture, particularly in a hot and humid environment,” he notes. “We want this apple to do well globally, so that’s important.”
Club apple programs create a sense of exclusivity while trying to balance supply with market demand. Beirnes says the new apple will be released in what he calls a ‘hybrid’ format. “Somewhere between an open release and a club variety,” he explains. “It will benefit from the high quality of standards that are associated with club programs and a very strategic approach to branding and marketing.”
That will include a technology transfer component for growers who are new to this variety to help them with growing practices, and a focused marketing program. “We have learned a lot from our previous releases,” says Beirnes. “In the past we branded the apple and developed some early marketing, but really left it up to industry to champion that apple in the market.”
Beirnes says SVC are bringing growers and marketers together to coordinate the new release. “It will be a club open to all Canadian marketers who wish to participate,” he says. “But we will coordinate the planning production, launch volume, and working with retailers.”
And the apple will be available, says Beirnes. “We have a Canada-wide mandate and we want this apple to be available and grown by as many Canadian growers as possible.” However, SVC will coordinate with consumers and retailers and work back through the market to determine what the appropriate amount of plantings will be. “We need a balance between supply and demand,” he says.
This hybrid club is an unprecedented opportunity for Canadian growers and marketers to work together says Beirnes. “At the most recent meeting of the Canadian apple breeding consortium, I received a lot of positive feedback from Ontario orchardists on how we plan to develop this.”
Cosmic Crisp is an interesting case study, both men note. “They have taken an innovative approach to this release with the scale and the money involved that we have never seen in the world,” says Beirnes. “I think everybody in the fruit growing industry is interested to see how that works and whether that is the new template for launching.”
Ibuki points out that numerous growers in the Washington industry needed a transition. “They still have widely spaced plantings of older apples like red and golden delicious,” he notes, those being varieties that have low market value and that many BC growers pulled out 20 years ago.
The Cosmic Crisp hype is good for the whole industry Ibuki says. “It gets consumers out trying a new variety,” he says. “We have every confidence that when this new variety comes out, Canadians will have access to an apple that will go head to head with Cosmic Crisp.”