A Dutch early apple variety being touted as a superior alternative to Discovery could make British growers “proud” to start the season.
Jonagold clone Robijn, owned by Dutch propagator Verbeek, is already listed in Asda and grown by several UK growers.
But it is now being promoted as a significant alternative to popular early variety Discovery, as it crops “very heavily” from 8 August.
“It’s very important that the British season starts with a strong variety. Discovery used to fill this space, but it’s a very immature variety,” said horticulture consultant Will Sibley, who is helping Verbeek to market Robijn in the UK.
“Robijn is very flavoursome and it crops extremely heavily. Here is an opportunity to start the season better than Discovery. It can be picked and marketed really strongly,” he said.
“It has been in the market for around five years, it’s listed in Asda, and it is now ready for significant promotion in the UK.”
Sibley said global apple development tends to be focused on late season varieties, created from “known winners” Gala or Braeburn, but the UK industry is actually in need of a better early season variety.
Whereas Jonagold is the number one apple in both Belgium and the Netherlands, and is very popular in France, Sibley said it is not well-supported in the UK market due to having a more “open texture” than British consumers are used to.
“It tends to have a more open texture, it’s not a soft apple but the texture is slightly fluffy,” Sibley said. “For this reason, as a main season variety Jonagold is a challenge – but in contrast, as an early variety Robijn has strong potential and is very flavoursome.
“The British industry could be very proud to start the season with Robijn, whereas you can’t always be proud of Discovery.”
Robijn was showcased at last weeks National Fruit Show, Kent.
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