EU: Sales season for Lola ended quickly

The sales season for the apples of the variety Maribelle under the brand name Lola ended at the end of April, despite the expectation at the start of the season that the last apples would be sold in June. This sales season, for the first time, the better Maribelle apples were sold under a new brand-concept Lola. Lola found its way to new buyers in Holland and as an export apple for the first time. Mathieu Gremmen of Jabema Ltd declares that this interest is partially due to its presence at Fruit Logistica in the stall of exporter Timmermans from Veen. An evaluation among sellers says that they mainly enjoy the constant quality and good shelf-life.

According to Gremmen the choice of Lola as a light-club concept was good. He emphasizes that the freer sales of Maribelle under the variety name in 2012 hasn't been done yet. The exact payout prices are, partially due to this, not available yet and are widely varied per grower. There is satisfaction about the price forming in which the better sizes of Lola brought up over 1 Euro/kg. The net payout prices will be lower after the deduction of the sorting costs and other sales related costs, but are clearly on a higher level than almost all other apple varieties.

The interest in planting is big. Gremmen expects the area in Holland to grow from around 60 hectares in 2011 to around 250 hectares in 2016. The trees for this are, for a large part, already being grown. It is expected the production will grow from around 400 tonnes in 2011, to around 1000 tonnes in 2012 to then quickly grow to a much higher trade volume of around 6000 tonnes in 2016.