Michal Slawski, Horticulture Division, Bord Bia

The retail value of apples sold in Ireland was €121 million in the year to the end of October. This represents a drop of 2.1% in the value of the market reflecting a rise of almost 6% in volumes and a drop of more than 7% in average prices due to the higher level of product sold on promotion.

Ireland produces a small amount of red eating apples, which are either sold in private label bags or packed into punnets under the premium Celtic Orchard brand. Irish red eating apples make up a fraction of the total sales of eating apples in Ireland.

Ireland produces a large quantity of Bramley Apples, the cooking apple that this year celebrates its 200th anniversary. The market in Bramleys is in growth, bucking the overall trend of the apple market with both value and volume up by over 40%. This reflects a return to home cooking and follows a general trend amongst consumers.

At a recent Top fruit conference hosted by Bord Bia, apple breeder Willy Dillen from Better3fruits outlined different marketing opportunities for new varieties being produced by his company. A club variety like Kanzi could be grown in Ireland, providing local supply in season and then relying on international production for the rest of the year.  This would help growers move away from commodity type production. 

A club variety entails royalty payments based on sales. As 10 000 new varieties go under trial each year, he could also offer producers varieties where all payments would be based on the price of the original trees, with growers then entitled to name and market the fruit as they wished, also giving growers opportunities to improve their returns.