Growers in Australia are phasing out the former school lunch box staple, the Red Delicious apple, in favour of sweeter crunchier varieties like Pink Lady and Royal Gala which now dominate the market.
While Red Delicious is still grown in small numbers, fewer trees are being planted each year with many replaced with other new varieties like Kanzi and Jazz, which are slowly taking up space on the supermarket shelf.
Second generation grower Bernard Hall from Orange in NSW’s central west said two decades ago 90 per cent of his family farm was planted with Red Delicious trees, now there was only two per cent.
“Red Delicious is on the out,” he said. “It’s a trend across the board.”
Mr Hall said there were other quality apple varieties on the market that were better eating and easy to grow.
According to Apple and Pear Australia Limited the national production of Red Delicious had dropped from 22.6 per cent to 15.6 per cent since 2000 while other varieties like Kanzi, Jazz and Braeburn had collectively grown from 24.7 per cent to 31.9 per cent.
APAL CEO John Dollisson said quantities of Red Delicious apples being produced in Australia had been declining for many years.
“Red Delicious apples remain an important variety of apple in Australia and worldwide but most Australian growers are not planting new trees of Red Delicious and are instead planting newer and more popular apples,” he said.
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
