BayWa has brought in the first ever harvest of the Jazz brand apple in the Weisenheim region of Rhineland-Palatinate for marketing in Germany. 

Some 100,000 trees on around 30 hectares have been planted in the region since 2015, which are now being successively harvested. Even though some of the trees were affected by frost, the harvest volumes have exceeded expectations, the company said.

The climatically-favored region in southern Rhineland-Palatinate is said to offer optimal growing conditions for Jazz apples.

"This is shown by the attractive colouration of the fruits and their aromatic taste," says Bernd Kranz, site manager of the fruit wholesale market in Weisenheim.

"Our fruit producers have done a great job and produced fantastic qualities."

The marketing of the first domestic Jazz apples has already been successfully completed. BayWa said that since its launch in 2003, the variety has been well established.

Its German origin is new, which is why a separate reference on the packaging in the food retail trade draws attention to the first domestic Jazz apples.

"However, consistently high inner and outer qualities are decisive for the successful further development of the Jazz® cultivation in the Weisenheim region as well as the marketing in Germany," the company said.

"Therefore, sorting results and qualities of the current crop are now being intensively tested again after marketing to identify further optimisation potential for the 2018 harvest and subsequent ones."

The BayWa Group has owned the Jazz apple brand since the take-over of T&G Global, New Zealand's market leader in the sale and export of fresh fruit.

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