If since 1995 Jacques Chirac is associated with apples, it looks like Francois Hollande will be too. The Elysée should soon receive a package from Japan of apples with the President’s face on them!
According to the Japanese press agency, Kyodo, by sending the President this package they hope to promote international relations. The apples are part of a lot of 1,200 fruits that have been personalised with portraits of twenty or so famous people including the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai, Pablo Picasso and the Mona Lisa.
These apples were picked in the town of Hirosaki in the North of Japan. The town is a large centre of apple production (over 20% of apples consumed in Japan come from Hirosaki), the town’s logo is an apple and they have a park devoted to apples.
To create such illustrations the Japanese fruit growers found a technique that couldn’t be more natural : they stuck special stickers on each fruit that blocked the light. Due to the sun, as they ripen, the apples skin becomes redder, except the covered parts which remain yellow. This is a technique often used by the Hirosaki fruit growers to advertise their production. Special series often reach extremely high prices at auction!