A good crop set, ideal conditions for coloring and a strong domestic market outlook suggest U.S. Pink Lady apple growers are in for a fruitful upcoming campaign. 

Pink Lady America president Lynnell Brandt said some of the early maturing selections could be ready by the end of the week, but the larger volumes looked to be at least three weeks off.

"I think the crop’s going to be pretty good. I think everybody set fairly well, and the conditions have been good too," he told Fresh Fruit Portal. 

He said temperatures in the growing areas were now at much more favorable levels following a hot summer throughout much of the U.S. West Coast.

"I would say we’re on a more normal year cycle. Temperature lows are down in the low 40s and highs are in the upper 60s and 70s. They may go a little higher, but that’s pretty much optimum for us," he said.

While there is no official crop estimate just yet, Brandt anticipated a slightly larger crop than last year due to new trees coming online. 

"We’ve continued to plant 300,000 to half a million-plus trees every year," he said.

He attributed the increasing acreage to the high grower returns and new early maturing material becoming available, opening up new production areas in northern Washington state, Michigan and New York.

Market conditions are expected to be strong this year too, he noted.

"The Pink Lady brand has brought some of the highest returns to growers of any of the selections and we’ve run out of product now almost completely, so there is a need to get it back well established in the distribution channels," he said.

Hot weather in many Southern Hemisphere countries last season resulted in some coloring issues for Pink Lady apples, in many cases leading to reduced exports of branded fruit.

"I did not see near as much imported material this year s I’ve seen in previous years," Brandt said.

"The domestic market strung out the domestic supplies and they’re able to supply now pretty much 12 months out of the year now with quite high colored material. 

"It may be that because of the lower color we didn’t get as much in, but coloring is normally not a difficult matter for us here, so we do expect to have good high color material."

He also explained that while exports were an important aspect of the U.S. industry, the domestic market has continued to pick up a "very high percentage" of total production.

"The domestic market here has continued to grow at quite an astonishing rate and has consumed most of the Pink Lady production here," he said.

"We do feel like the Asian markets are continuing to expand and we were hoping to meet some of that demand, but our biggest thing is the domestic market has continued to expand and has been paying a premium - in many cases more than we could obtain exporting."

Meanwhile, Indianapolis-based The Produce Mom, a blog and media brand promoting fresh produce, announced this hear that it was teaming up with Pink Lady America this season.

Together, they will create content that educates consumers about how to select, store, and serve Pink Lady Apples; their nutritional value; and where to purchase.

Content will also provide information about the growing and harvesting processes that give the fruit its blush color, sweet flavor, and crisp texture, it said.

www.freshfruitportal.com