New-season British Pink Lady apples have made their way to UK supermarket shelves, and suppliers Worldwide Fruit and Adrian Scripps are expressing delight over this year’s crop.
Renowned for their unique growing requirements, Pink Lady apples are the first to blossom and the last to be hand-picked, needing more hours of sunlight and warmth than other apple varieties. To meet these conditions, Worldwide Fruit and Adrian Scripps have carefully selected orchards in the UK's warmer, sunnier regions.
“Growing Pink Lady in the UK has been a significant achievement, with our orchards delivering consistently high-quality, delicious fruit for the past few years,” says Hannah McIlfatrick, commercial director of Worldwide Fruit. “Pink Lady is the UK’s biggest fresh produce brand and a firm favourite with our consumers. It’s fantastic to have a British offer to complement our supplier partners overseas.”
James Simpson, managing director of Adrian Scripps, added: “Our trees are still quite young, so production is increasing each year, and it will be available to shoppers for a longer time this winter. We are really pleased with the quality of fruit this year. We had the perfect harvest conditions, and the fruit looks and tastes great.”
Tony Harding, Worldwide Fruit’s technical and procurement director, also highlighted the crop’s strong performance. “Our volume has increased year on year, and we are hopeful of a high percentage pack-out to Pink Lady standards,” he said. “The growers have done an excellent job despite a challenging growing season. The fruit looks great, with a high percentage coverage of pink blush, and the eating quality is superb, with a typical Pink Lady fizzy taste.”
Harding further explained that the team’s efforts in optimising harvest management had paid off. “All the fruit was picked in optimum condition, and we have a good split of controlled atmosphere and air-stored volumes to deliver the sales campaign starting in December. The technical protocol we developed for the harvest management has worked well, and we are very confident about the fruit quality from the 2024 harvest.”
The first British-grown Pink Lady apples were introduced to UK supermarkets in February 2022, marking a milestone for the brand. This year’s crop continues to build on that success, offering consumers a premium British-grown option of the popular apple variety.
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