09/13/06 The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing! I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Apple varieties come and they go. The good ones don't always get their time in the sun so to speak. Dennis Courtier is an apple producer in Minnesota that really wants to see good apple varieties succeed. He is joined by producers from across the country in a new project called The Next Big Thing, a grower's cooperative. COURTIER: What we're really doing here is a joint venture amongst some of the leading growers and packers in the country to do new product development and marketing. So the real goal for this thing is to treat new apple varieties as vertically integrated brands, consumer brands. Courtier talks about some of the challenges of apple varieties. COURTIER: Well, new apple varieties don't come with owners manuals and as such, you don't really know what you've got until you've got it a little bit. I mean a lot of it's going to be determined. The first variety that we are starting with seems to have a great deal of promise initially. But, not one box has been sold to anybody yet. We've got test trees scattered across the country. We've got very positive feedback from those. We know it's a great tasting apple and it seems like it should have good commercial potential, but, rather that run around making promises that we don't know&you don't know how some of this stuff is going to turn out. Tomorrow, more on "The Next Big Thing." That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.