06/14/06 Pink Lady

Pink Lady making an impression. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. When Alan Taylor talks about the Pink Lady, you'd almost get the impression he's talking about a hot new movie star. But the Pink Lady is a relatively new variety of delicious apple. Taylor is the marketing director for Pink Lady America. TAYLOR: I think the Pink Lady is kind of establishing a pattern or marketing model for these future varieties that will be coming in from New Zealand over the next 5, 10, 15 years. Taylor says the flavor of a Pink Lady is much like a Gala with something extra. TAYLOR: Most people have tasted a Gala but I always say when you bite into it the Gala has a pleasant burst of flavor but it's a flavor that doesn't last very long. When you bite into a Pink Lady, as long as you are chewing on it you have that flavor. Finding the Pink Lady in your local market may be a bit difficult. TAYLOR: The retailers are saying you know I've got nine varieties of apples and that's enough, I don't need any more so I think you're going to see a lot of these new varieties marketed in different ways than we see now. But you are seeing the club varieties where there are restriction put on acreage in order to keep the supply down. You're probably going to see varieties that are offered to retailers and others on an exclusive basis. In other words if you give them one of the new varieties, they like it, they want it but if they're going to have that variety they're going to have to establish a certain marketing program that you're going to approve of and of course they're going to compensate the grower for that particular variety. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.