Producers “very confident” about fruit quality and hopeful of high percentage pack-out after “perfect” harvest conditions
New-season British Pink Lady apples have arrived on UK supermarkets shelves and suppliers Worldwide Fruit and Adrian Scripps say they are “delighted” with this year’s crop.
Known for being the first to blossom and the last to be hand-picked, Pink Lady apples need more hours of sunlight and heat to ripen than other varieties. So Worldwide Fruit and Adrian Scripps have selected orchards in the warmer, sunnier regions of the UK.
Worldwide’s commercial director Hannah Mcllfatrick said: “Growing Pink Lady in the UK has been a significant achievement, with our orchards delivering consistently high-quality, delicious fruit for the past few years.
“Pink Lady is the UK’s biggest fresh produce brands and a firm favourite with our consumers. It’s fantastic to have a British offer, to complement our supplier partners overseas.”
Adrian Scripps MD James Simpson added: “Our trees are still quite young, so production is increasing each year, and it will be available to shoppers for a longer time this winter. We are really pleased with the quality of fruit this year. We had the perfect harvest conditions and the fruit looks and tastes great.”
Commenting further on fruit quality, Worldwide’s technical and procurement director Tony Harding said: “Our volume has increased year on year, and we are hopeful of a high percentage pack-out to Pink Lady standards.
“The growers have done an excellent job despite a challenging growing season. The fruit looks great, with a high percentage coverage of pink blush, and the eating quality is superb, with a typical Pink Lady fizzy taste.
“All the fruit was picked in optimum condition, and we have a good split of controlled atmosphere and air-stored volumes to deliver the sales campaign starting in December.
“The technical protocol we developed for the harvest management has worked well and we are very confident about the fruit quality from the 2024 harvest.”
