The Washington Apple Commission has kicked off month-long promotion in India with the goal of increasing knowledge of different varieties and creating new market opportunities for U.S. suppliers. 

The campaign will run in 15 stores of supermarket chain Star Bazaar until mid-June, highlighting nine varieties - Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Braeburn, Cameo, Jonagold and Cripps Pink.

Washington Apple Commission India representative Keith Sunderlal told www.freshfruitportal.com the focus of this promotion was on educating consumers about other apple varietes rather than immediate sales increases.

"I think more than boosting sales directly it’s more important that in the longer run to move away from being a Red Delicious supplier to bring a multiple variety supplier," Sunderlal said.

"A lot of our production growth over the years is going to come from other varieties."

India generally favors bananas and mangoes over apples, although if promotions such as this are successful it could create a lucrative new market, given the country's huge population.

Currently, Red Delicious and Granny Smith are the most popular varieties in the country, but Sunderlal reported promising consumer trends with other varieties.

"Some of the other ones that we have seen movement with are Fuji, Gala, and Cripps Pink. These three are definitely picking up interest," he said.

"Those certainly seem to be of more interest at this point in time, but interest for others will grow. We will see in time which others gain traction in the market."

Sunderlal also mentioned he would like to have included the Honeycrisp variety in the Indian campaign, though issues with supply meant that was not feasible.

"In this particular promotion we did not have Honeycrisp because there wasn't much available from the suppliers, but we have a lot of interest in it," he said.

Despite the Commission’s long-time goal of pushing new varieties into the Indian market, Sunderlal emphasized that this was a one-off promotion.

"We do encourage importers and retailers to bring in multiple varieties but this is one where we did a specific variety promotion. At the moment we don’t have anything like this in the pipeline."

In the last couple of years, the Washington Apple Commission conducted a successful campaign using famous cricketers to promote its apples as a healthy snack.

Due to limited supply from the U.S., a promotion of that scale was not possible this season, though Sunderlal said he hopes 2015 will bring new opportunities.

"This year was a little challenging so we didn’t do any of those larger scale promotions because we knew at the beginning of the season we would not have the size profile that India needs," he said.

"So this year we had to be a little slow on our promotion, but next year’s going to be another story so we don’t know what our plans are going to be."

The Washington Apple Commission has also been busy in Mexico, where it recently began a similar campaign to capitalize on the consumers’ limited knowledge of apple varieties.

Related story: U.S. repbids in inspire apple and cherry consumption in Mexico

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