Le Crunch is marking the start of the new French apple season with the launch of a marketing and promotions campaign focusing on the major multiple retailers, on top of heavy apple volumes.
The campaign, which aims to increase the visibility and sales of Le Crunch apples in the UK, began in early September.
On-pack promotions and other promotional activities will run throughout the season in Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Co-op and Waitrose.
France is set to produce 1.6 million tonnes of apples this season, a five per cent increase on the 2008-09 season.
It is expected that French producers will harvest around 541,000t of Golden Delicious, 263,000t of Royal Gala, 170,000t of Granny Smith, 112,000t of Braeburn and 60,000t of Red.
Le Crunch, the umbrella brand set up by Interfel (the professional association for French fruit and vegetables), predominantly covers five main varieties: Golden Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Braeburn and Reds.
Daniel Corbel, co-president of Interfel’s external market commission, said: “Not only is there an increased harvest this year but yet again the quality is also really high, so it’s good news all round for Le Crunch. It’s a challenging market at the moment but we are confident that both the quality and quantity of our apples will meet the high expectations of the UK buyers.
“We are happy to be able to support this with a range of in-store promotional mechanics that will put Le Crunch at the front of British consumers’ minds and, we hope, into their shopping baskets.”
France devotes more than 40,000 hectares to apple production and is the fifth-largest producer of apples in the world.
In total, around 40 per cent of the French crop is exported, 45 per cent will meet domestic demand and the remaining 15 per cent will be sold for food processing.
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