As the founder of Pink Lady Europe steps down, Chris White recalls his first encounter with the apple in Australia during the early 1990s
It’s no exaggeration to say that Didier Crabos and his colleagues at Pink Lady changed the face of apple marketing in Europe, and perhaps the rest of the world, in the last quarter-century.
Didier Crabos stood down as chairman of Pink Lady Europe in early December, after 25 years at the helm of the association that he created.
The story of Pink Lady is well known and told elsewhere. But, as Didier was generous to remind us, our magazine played a key role in the creation of Pink Lady.
“You played a role in the history of Pink Lady” he wrote on LinkedIn. “I discovered the existence of the Pink Lady apple in one of your articles talking about the arrival of some cartons of amazing apple in UK in 1993.”
The story goes that John Baker and the Australian Horticultural Corporation invited me to Australia in January 1993 to report on developments down under.
And during my two-week visit we dropped by to see an apple grower called Jon Durham: Jon showed me two apples, I pointed at the one I liked best, and that was the apple variety that went on to become Pink Lady.
It’s wonderful to have played my own small role in this remarkable story of Pink Lady. Even better still is to know that the work I and my colleagues did then and that we still do day in and day out really can make a difference for our sector.
So don’t stop telling us about what’s new and what’s interesting. Who knows, perhaps yours could be the next Pink Lady.
So, use Fruitnet’s magazines and events, and tell the world all about it.
