An apple grower in Ontario has been working on a range of apple chips in recent years. Martin's Family Fruit Farm near Kitchener, Ontario not only grow a variety of apples but also offer a range of apple-based products including sliced and diced apples. The apple chips are another product line the company developed in response to what they see as increasing consumer demand for healthy, on-the-go snacks. Such has been the response that they are now expanding the line.
"Our company continues to expand North American sales of our signature processed item, Martin's Crispy Apple Chips," shared Kevin Martin, President of Martin's Family Fruit Farm. "Now available in 4 fun flavours, these delicious and healthy dehydrated apple treats are becoming a preferred go-to snack for health conscious consumers. We are also working on new healthy, apple-based products to complement our apple chips and hope to launch our expanded product line up in the New Year, possibly in conjunction with the CPMA show in Montreal in April."
The current range includes the flavors (left to right): Caramel Dream, Chocolaty Drizzle, Cinnamon, and Original.
Apple volume up from last year
Overall, it's been a good steady year for apple growers in Ontario. Taking advantage of relatively favorable growing conditions, volume was up over last year's light crop and more in line with the long term average. Sizing was slightly smaller on some varieties due to the lack of rain during the summer. The harvest wrapped up on time during the last week of October.
"We had a good overall volume crop this year across all varieties," Martin observed. "We are reporting volumes to be up approximately 30 percent over 2017, which was a lighter than average crop, and nearly the same as volumes from 2016. Sizing was good on most varieties, although some varieties such as Gala were slightly smaller due to a dry summer in some areas. We have a very good supply of all commercial varieties at the moment, spanning all sizes."
Ambrosia and Crimson Crisp performing well
Much like volumes this season, the market has also been largely steady. There are some varieties though that are performing very well, according to Martin. These include Gala, Honeycrisp and the newer variety Ambrosia, which has been one of the standouts.
"Our most popular varieties such as Gala, Honeycrisp and Ambrosia are selling briskly and we will project to have a good supply well into the New Year," Martin said. "We also have McIntosh, Red Delicious, Fuji, and Empire in good supply now and will continue to sell steadily throughout 2019. Sales have been steady this year, very consistent with other years to this date. Ambrosia has continued to grow in popularity with Ontario consumers as indicated by increasing sales."
Martin's Family Fruit Farm also have another newer variety, Crimson Crisp, which Martin noted has been the subject of the company's marketing efforts. "We have been active in marketing a newer variety, Crimson Crisp. It has spectacular deep red colouring and is a very firm, crunchy apple (true to its name) with good flavour."
Crimson Crisp is typically available until January.
For more information:
Peter Katona
Martin's Family Fruit Farm
Tel: +1 (519) 664-2750
peterk@martinsapples.com
www.martinsapples.com