Italian topfruit marketer Kiku has launched two new branded apple varieties at Interpoma.
Swing is a crunchy, juicy, red-blush apple with strong disease resistance. Owned by Italian/French group Red Moon, the plant material is produced under the name Swing Xeleven by Braun Nurseries and Escande Nursery.
Due to its high tolerance to disease, the variety needs little in the way of chemical protection, leading to the strapline ‘Natural More’. It harvests around the same time as Fuji, and is also said to have good storability and shelf life.
Jürgen Braun, general manager of Kiku, said the launch represents its desire to work with growers to bring tasty, sustainable and low-input varieties to market. “We are looking around for grower-marketers who share our idea for this low-residue concept, with total respect for the environment,” he says. “We want to put together a family of like-minded people.”
Meanwhile Red Moon, which comes with the strapline Surprise Inside, is the new umbrella brand for a series of red-flesh apples that hope to capture consumers’ imagination. As well as good eating quality and storability, the apples are said to be ideal for processing as they do not oxidate and retain their red colour, as well as having good packout.
Braun says the higher vitamin C content of Red Moon makes them ideal for juicing, and there are also plans to sell bottled red apple juice, which should provide a point of interest for consumers.
In this, the 25th anniversary of Kiku, the company has continued its approach of supporting sportspeople across a range of minority and niche sports from biathlon and unicycle to extreme cycling and luge, pushing the link between Kiku, healthy nutrition and fun.
Among its other lines, branded snack apple Isaaq is aiming to change perceptions of small apples as being of inferior quality, according to Braun. The brand has featured in a trial at checkouts in German supermarkets, and production is increasing with a new orchard coming on stream from PickMee! in New Zealand.
On Crimson Snow – a red-skinned, white-flesh sweet apple – the company is using growers as well as sportspeople to help put a face to food production.
Despite the flurry of new product activity Kiku is not resting on its laurels for the future, with Braun stating that the company is in the process of trialling “100-120” new varieties in the hope of finding its next brand. “I hope to have three to five new varieties coming to market in the next 10 years,” he claims. “We are trying to find a sexy story, a new concept that really motivates consumers to buy.”
