As reported on freshinfo on Saturday, the English Braeburn is now officially the nation's favourite apple and for the first time this October Sainsbury's is in a position to offer 100 per cent English Braeburn.
Braeburn has overtaken traditional British varieties such as Cox as the UK consumer's favourite apple, but sales are heavily dependent on imports. Sainsbury's sold around 55 tonnes of Braeburn last year and this year expects to treble that amount. The hot weather has helped to trigger a good volume of fruit and the 100 per cent English situation has happened before expected.
Marcus Hoggarth, Sainsbury's apple buyer, said: "We have worked hard with our supplier to expand the Braeburn crop to respond to customer demand and are thrilled that we will be the only supermarket offering 100 per cent British Braeburn this October."
Keith Butterworth, commercial manager at Worldwide Fruit, said: "In just a year we have trebled our output of British Braeburn apples to Sainsbury's to keep up with customer demand which is great news for us British apple farmers as it reduces imports."
Sainsbury's is now printing farmers names and regions of origin on all packs of English apples. Future plans also include printing a code on all fresh produce allowing customers to log onto a website and 'meet the farmer' and learn more about the product they are buying.
Apple League - Top 5 Favourites chosen by Sainsbury's customers:
1.English Braeburn
2.Royal Gala
3.Golden Delicious
4.English Cox
5.Pink Lady
English Apple Varieties on sale in Sainsbury's this year:
1.Braeburn
2.English Cox
3.Royal Gala
4.Egremont Russet
5.Adams Pearmaine
6.Worcester Pearmaine
7.Winter Wonder
8.Bramley
9.Howgate Wonder
10.Spartan
11.Suffolk Pinks
12.Delberestivale
13.Discovery
14.British Empire
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