In the Pome Fruit Business Unit, the following outstanding varieties have created a real buzz of excitement.
PremA093/Sassy™ was one of the apple varieties that stood out in their evaluation test blocks last season and this season’s harvest was no other. PremA093 offers superb eating quality and has an intense red colour. The apple is firm and crisp to bite, yet sweet and mild to taste. At full maturity, the fruit is full-block-red with an attractive light-yellow background. It boasts a distinctive conical shape.
The TP 15 -41/Eden Gold™ pear variety has an extremely low chill requirement and is known for its excellent eating quality, having a crisp, juicy, sweet, and subtle acidic taste. The texture is crunchy and remains this way throughout all storage stages including a supermarket shelf, with its unique flavour profile making it stand out from other early-season varieties.
Inored is a very attractive, bright red apple with a subtle and sweet taste. This beautiful apple is very productive, does not bruise easily, and stores exceptionally well. Along with having fantastic pack-outs, this apple has it all! TopFruit believes that Inored is an exciting option for African markets where the colour red and robustness of apples are crucial.
Bingo Gala is an exciting blushed cherry red, stable Gala apple mutation that was discovered in Grabouw, South Africa. It offers an extremely high bin pack-out with an average exportable class 1 pack-out of > 85% with more than 80% red colour surface area. This variety is production-friendly. Bingo Gala’s colour develops as it matures so it is easily managed with a two-pick strategy.
Bingo Gala is seen as a potential top seller in Asia, because of its high colour. It offers opportunities for South African producers to be more competitive in Asian markets with a higher coloured gala.