Page 22 - October freshletter_UK

20 FRESHLETTER

VOG

COMPLETE CHANGE OF ITS VARIETAL MAP UNTIL 2025

Over 1,800 hectares of investments in new varieties are planned in the course of the next five years. The Golden
Delicious, Red Delicious and Braeburn areas will be reduced. Over 300 new hectares already in the transition
phase will be dedicated to organic farming.

Over 10,000 hectares of apple trees are
cultivated by the almost 5,000 produc-
ers associated with the VOG Consortium.
These farms, which are mostly family-run,
have an average of a few hectares and their
profitability is determined by their choice of
variety.
Until a few years ago, Golden Delicious
still accounted for over 25% of the harvest.
Now, for the first time, forecasts for autumn
2019 predict that Royal Gala will reach the
top spot in the ranking, bringing Golden De-
licious down to second place. The season
that has just ended showed that the abun-
dant supply of Italian Golden Delicious
struggles in traditional markets such as It-
aly and Spain, which are already saturat-
ed. And new end markets, such as India and
South East Asia, prefer – both due to tra-
dition and in terms of flavour – other vari-
eties.
Hence the need to courageously contin-
ue with the variety innovation projects that
began in the late ’90s with the introduction
of Royal Gala and then Fuji, followed in the
early years of the new millennium with ma-
jor investment in the first “club apple”, Pink
Lady®. Other varieties have followed in re-
cent years such as Kanzi®, Jazz™ and en-
vy™, all characterized by excellent sensory
features, crispiness and juiciness: the char-
acteristics required by today’s modern con-
sumer.
More club varieties and more
new varieties
For the next five years, the VOG Consor-
tium’s “Varietal Innovation 2025” strategic
project offers associated farmers the op-
portunity to take part in new variety proj-

OCTOBER 2019