Like most fresh produce categories, it has not been easy for those operating in the branded and club variety apple market in recent times.
The impact of financial austerity, the Russian ban on EU product, and a strong pound against the euro have all combined to put pressure on the marketplace and price.
This has meant growers of these products have had to look at ways of selling for more money, or reducing input costs.
A spokesperson for Cameo says: “With Cameo specifically, a tremendous amount of work has been going on to develop more coloured clones, allowing growers to reduce picking costs and achieve better gradeouts.
“Alongside this, the focus has been around encouraging new growers to plant Cameo, especially at a time in which growers are not sure which variety to plant. This will enable us to produce the volume required to sell English dessert apples year-round.
“Much work is also going into new varieties that have greater health benefits – several pieces of robust research are demonstrating that varieties, such as Cameo, have nutraceutical (functional food) health benefits in the long term.”
It is believed that this will be a record year for UK dessert apple volume production, with estimates at the 140,000t mark, of which 15 per cent will be new varieties, predominantly club ones.
In line with this, marketing activity on club varieties continues to pick up steam.
Gary Harrison, of Worldwide Fruit, which grows Jazz apples, says: “To support the brand in the coming months we will be embarking on a sampling campaign at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham in November to launch the new UK Jazz season.Our Jazz Apple Foundation charitable scheme and Jazz Apple Junior membership club are continuing to attract interest, and a recipe and press campaign will also be kicking off to shout about the apple’s taste quality and alternate usages.
“With a growing number of fans following the variety’s movements via our monthly newsletter, which has over 50,000 subscribers, or on our Facebook or Twitter social media platforms, digital will continue to play a big role in communicating the brand’s key USPs and news, while attracting new consumers.”
He adds: “It takes time, it takes effort and it takes investment, but for us at Jazz, we have truly seen the benefits.”
The Cameo spokesperson, meanwhile, notes: “There is a direct consumer marketing plan for Cameo, primarily using social media. There will be a series of competitions, coupled with a new newsletter and blog offering new family-orientated recipes, an insight into the growers, life in the orchard and links to topical events, plus product information.
“The new recipes and grower information will be shared with consumer publications, and updates on production, growing techniques and work on the new clones will be shared with the trade press.”
Cameo growers are crossing their fingers that budget-straining price promotions won’t be required in the coming season: “Cameo has a well-deserved position as the apple that delivers great flavour and quality for the longer season,” the brand spokesperson says. “This enables British growers to move closer to achieving their objective of producing excellent, home-grown apples for sale any time of the year, which in turn supports our retail partners, who get guaranteed continuity of supply from dedicated, home-market suppliers, working to improve the service they deliver to consumers.”
Harrison notes that working with retail customers to grow sales and market share remains absolutely key to the Jazz strategy, and the brand recently secured a listing at Aldi.
“While last year’s British crop was slightly smaller than expected, this year is looking good in terms of size and quality so picking will be starting during October and the first of the new UK crop should be in shops by the end of November,” he explains. “We are anticipating 20 per cent more British Jazz to be available this season, so this is good news for us.The Jazz apple is consistently one of the big talking points and success stories in the UK apple category as it continues its impressive rise in popularity. We’re definitely seeing more and more consumers moving over to them as their preferred apple and with its unique flavour, crunch and sublime consistency, many are staying loyal.”
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