Granny Smith is surprising the pundits bucking a trend in the UK for stagnation in volume and only slight increase in spend. According to data released by marketer Capespan, over the last two years, the spend on Granny Smith in the UK has risen to £74 million from £57m and volumes have increased by over 30 per cent to 68,000 tonnes.
And with plenty of summer fruit around, Granny Smith has a bigger share of the apple market in the hottest month of the year. Of all apple sales in August, Granny Smith accounted for 17 per cent, compared to 13 per cent through the rest of the year.
Capespan suggests this could be because South African Granny Smith - which dominate the market over the summer - are sweeter than the same variety from other sources. Identifying South African Granny Smith on retail shelves and using positive marketing could help boost sales still further.
Pink Lady is still making significant gains and volumes rose in the year to August 2004 by 56 per cent and spend by 50 per cent to £35m.
But Braeburn is finding the going tougher. Volumes in the same 2003-04 period were down 12 per cent and values fell by seven per cent.
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