Apple players should make take inspiration from vineyards in the way that they showcase and promote their offer, industry leaders heard at Italian trade show Interpoma last week.

Otto Jolias Steiner from communications agency Steiner Sarnen Switzerland urged growers to become “prouder” of their apples and for the industry to “sell apples in a completely different way”.

The agency is working to reposition the apple orchard in Hofgarten Brixen as a tourist attraction featuring somewhere to taste apples and learn about how they are grown, to be known as Pomarium Brixen.

He said that apples are “underestimated”, having become a “mass product that lacks soul” and must be linked back to myth and history, starting with the story of Adam and Eve.

He said: “When I visit vineyards, I drink wine with the owners. When I visit orchards, no one offers me fruit…

“Only imagination will allow apples to attain a new role, only through innovation will the apple world change. We find apples in retail stores, but they are so much more.”