Adrian Barlow was pleased at the amount of press coverage English apples had already garnered

Adrian Barlow was pleased at the amount of press coverage English apples had already garnered

The English apple season is being relaunched as the industry looks to capitalise on increased availability of designer apples and a lengthier season.

The season, which will now see Jazz, Kanzi and Cameo apples come on stream in volume, is set to continue into May this year, with quality said to be excellent.

The relaunch has received considerable consumer media coverage, with regional and national radio coverage combining with television attention to gain widespread publicity for the product.

English apples have featured on BBC Two’s Working Lunch, BBC Radio 5Live’s Wake Up to Money and BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, as well as a host of regional radio programmes.

The offer will also benefit from increased volumes and availability of English Braeburn, Cox, Gala and Egremont Russet, as well as an increased focus on the Union Jack logo featured on pack.

Originally the launch was planned to take place on 8 January. However, the severe weather made it likely that the messages would have been diluted by the media’s focus on weather-related problems, so it was postponed by a week.

Adrian Barlow, chief executive of English Apples & Pears, which is behind the relaunch, said: “Many of the stations broadcast introductions that highlighted some of our messages. For instance, 5Live used a woman’s voiceover naming each variety followed by a description of the taste and appearance, while Working Lunch used jazz music and banter between the presenters about jazz leading to Jazz apples. One of the presenters on Working Lunch ate an apple during the interview and during the remainder of the programme.

“Several other presenters tasted the apples and described the different tastes during the interviews. The key objectives were covered in all the interviews and some of the regional radio interviews lasted for up to 15 minutes.

“Other interviews are scheduled to take place, including further coverage on national TV. However, already this has amounted to an extraordinary amount of coverage which should be highly beneficial in increasing consumer awareness and demand.”

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