From The Road: IFTA Conference Day 3

By Christina Herrick|February 24, 2015

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Terence Robinson of Cornell University presents the 2015 Outstanding Researcher of the Year to Charlie Embry of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. "I owe a great deal of respect to early leaders and early founders of this organization," Embry said. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Bill Craig of Perennia is recognized as the 2015 Extension Agent Of The Year by Larry Lutz. "I was very fortunate to walk into a research station that had a lot of people to learn from," Craig said. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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John Eisses was recognized by Chris Duyvelshoff of Perennia as the 2015 Grower Of The Year. "You always learn something at IFTA. A lot of it is in the one-on-ones," Eisses says. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Lisa Jenereaux, on behalf of Spur Brothers Farms, recieves the 2015 Grower of the Year award from past-president Steve Blizzard. Jenereaux was surprised at the top-secret award. "I'm on the awards committeee and I didn't know," she said. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Neal Manly of Willow Drive Nursery presents the 2015 Industry Service award to Larry Lutz of Scotian Gold. "This organization gave me more back than I did to it," Lutz says. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Terence Robinson of Cornell University was inducted into the IFTA Hall Of Fame by outgoing president Phil Schwallier. Robinso was also recognized as an outgoing board member. "In my life, the only thing that matters is growers appreciating what you were doing," Robinson said. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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IFTA vice president Rod Farrow and president Tim Welsh honor outgoing president Phil Schwallier for his service. "You're more than just farmers, more than just fruit growers, you're family to me," says Schwallier. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Outgoing board member Trever Meachum of High Acres Fruit Farm in Michigan was honored by IFTA president Tim Welsh. "Mar farm wouldn't be where it is today without IFTA," Meachum says. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
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Outgoing board member Sam DiMaria of Sam DiMaria Orchards in British Columbia was recognized by IFTA president Tim Welsh. "I am grateful to belong to this organization," DiMaria says. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)

Do you know what apples your local grocery store is selling? If you don’t, you should, says John Rice of Rice Fruit Company. He spoke on the landscape of retail apples during sessions at the International Fruit Tree Association’s (IFTA) annual conference.

Rice, the first American and Western Fruit Grower Apple Grower of the Year, said whenever he has time in a new town he goes to see what apples are for sale and for what price. It’s important to know what the market for apples is like because a lot has changed over the years.

When Rice, a seventh-generation apple grower, started working for his family’s company in 1975, the most expensive apple in the store was Red Delicious at 99 cents a pound. Today, the most expensive apple in the store is Honeycrisp, and the least expensive apple in that store is – you guessed it – Red Delicious at 99 cents a pound.

On this display was Honeycrisp on one end, Gala on the other, and in between was a mixture of Braeburn, Fuji, Pink Lady, Jonagold, Lady Alice, Kiku, Jazz, and some Red and Golden Delicious.

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Rice said most of those apples were from Washington, with the local apple varieties on the other side of that apple display.

The troubling part is your consumer has only tried a handful of those varieties.

“The average shopper is thinking ‘I only buy Honeycrisp or Gala,’” he said.

With all those apple varieties on sale, if your consumer is only familiar with a third of what’s in those displays, and apple crop sizes continue skyward, apple growers should be focusing more on marketing all these new varieties.

He listed off approximately 50 or so names of all the new varieties from Ambrosia to Zestar!.

So who is driving all these new varieties? It’s not the consumer. It’s not the retailers, who have no idea where to put the SnapDragons and Cosmic Crisps among the already crowded displays.

“The consumer is not asking for 50 new varieties,” Rice says. “They wanted 2 to 3 varieties better than Red Delicious.”

These varieties are being driven by the producers, Rice says.

“Growers want to plant the next Honeycrisp,” he says.

But none of these new varieties are going to be the next Honeycrisp if your consumers haven’t tried them. And they won’t try them if you don’t promote your apples.

“We are spending millions and millions of dollars on these new varieties – how to grow them, store them, etc.,” Rice says. “How much are we spending on marketing?”

Direct marketers have an advantage in being able to sell these new varieties personally. Rice says as you’re putting new varieties in the ground, think about how you’re going to sell them. Because, with a lot of apples coming in the future, we’ve got to find a way to brand and market these apples to get them in consumer’s hands.

IFTA Honors Its Own

During Monday night’s annual IFTA banquet, Cornell University’s Terence Robinson was not only honored for his time on the IFTA board of directors, but was also inducted into the IFTA Hall of Fame. When honored, Robinson, obviously moved by the recognition, said he’s just trying to help fruit growers. But he couldn’t leave the stage without doling out a little bit of homework for growers, “I do want to ask, in the three years I’m gone (on sabbatical), could you get rid of those crummy orchards and plant high density?”

More Updates

For more from IFTA, be sure to check out Christina Herrick’s Twitter feed @HerrickAFG, where she will be sending updates from all the sessions and catch the April issue of American Fruit Grower magazine for a recap of the conference. Missed one of the recaps? Check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 4.