Development of a new concept for the Opal® apple

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Info

Development of a new concept for the Opal® apple

The yellow-coloured apple variety Golden Delicious, which was originally from the USA, has dominated the world market for more than a century. “Who is going to capture the Golden Delicious throne?” is a question that has inspired numerous pioneers into breeding and selecting a better apple for more than 30 years. Up to now this has had relatively limited success as market differentiation is difficult to achieve because of the dominance and om- nipresence of Golden Delicious.

Although the consumption of yellow apples by European consumers has been declining for 10 years, Golden Delicious still has a market share of between 20 and 25% of all apples produced in Europe. The release of a new, distinct variety must be in line with the general trend for a more natural appearance, more flavour, crunchiness and a better shelf-life.

Origin

An apple that might be suitable is UEB 32642’

(brand name Opal^®), a cross between Golden Deli- cious and Topaz. It was bred by the Topaz breeder Dr. Jaroslav Tupý and his team from UEB Prague, the Czech Republic. EU Plant Breeders Rights for

‘UEB 32642’ were granted on 30.01. 2006. ‘UEB 32642’ is a yellow-to-gold coloured apple with considerable amount of blush depending on the year and the growing location. In terms of disease, the variety is scab resistant (vf), tolerant to powdery mildew and canker (Neonectria ditissima) and robust with respect to fire blight.

Repeated trials during which the shoot tips were artificially inoculated with Erwinia amylovora showed a low susceptibility of ‘UEB 32642’ to fire blight in terms of lesion length of the inoculated young shoots after 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks respec- tively (Graph 1). The texture of the apple is firm and stays crunchy. The flavour is described as full and mild-subacid with a high sugar content of up to 17° Brix. In storage, no relevant physiological disorders have been observed yet.

Pilot orchards in Europe

In 2007, two-year-old, virus-free ‘UEB 32642’ knip trees, provided by Vermeerderingstuinen Neder- land, were planted in 64 different locations across the European continent in order to discover the

Introduction Apples of the trademark Opal®, variety name UEB 32642, were the focus during an International Meet- ing at the end of Sep- tember 2012 at Lake Constance. According to Michael Weber, the Golden Delicious and Topaz cross has the potential to create its own category.

Michael Weber

Marketing Specialist

webfruit GmbH, Langenargen, Germany info@web-fruit.de

Simon Egger

Head of fruit extension and variety evaluation Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW, Switzerland simon.egger@acw.admin.ch

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Opal® Topaz

% LL1 % LL2 %LL3 %LL4 Rewena -

(tolerant) Gala -

(susceptible) Graph 1: Lesion length 1, 2, 3 & 4 weeks after the young shoots of UEB 32642 had been artificially inoculated with fire blight

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best growing regions. Traditionally, the variety performs best where Golden Delicious of high fruit quality is grown. Surprisingly, after six years, good performance has also been recorded in continental hot regions such as Catalonia, Spain, at high altitude in Upper Savoy, France, but also under the climatic conditions found in the growing region of Lake Constance. In any case, a mild climate, where grapes are grown, is ideal. Stem- end russet can sometimes be really pronounced, which is a characteristic of the variety. “In any case, if fruit russet is a major, regular problem at your location, it is better not to grow the variety”

recommends Michael Weber, Marketing Special- ist of webfruit GmbH in Langenargen, Germany.

“Furthermore, we observed a cleaner skin finish when grown using an Integrated Fruit Produc- tion scheme, rather than an organic scheme.”

Commercial apple orchards of the ‘UEB 32642’

variety have been planted since 2008 in Austria, Czech Republic, England, Germany and France.

Production in Europe

Innovation needs time not only at the breeding level but also in order to create a market and to develop a market introduction concept. Indi- vidual growers are directly getting engaged with fruit.select, the European Master License holder of the ‘UEB 32642’ variety and the owner of the Opal^® trademark. The company covers geographi- cal Europe including Russia and all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Growers must sign a grower agreement prior to purchasing trees from authorized nurseries and trees are grown based on demand. The distribution of trees is or- ganized by DL Elaris, Star Fruits Diffusion, Fytos Nursery, Deimel Nursery and Vermeerderings- tuinen Nederland (V.NL) through the “Tupy Groep Nurseries” Botden & van Willegen, Van Diepen, Henri Fleuren, Hillebrand, Van Rijn de Bruyn and Verbeek. Growers must sell their apples under the Opal trademark. In Austria, Germany, Swit- zerland and the UK, growers must follow the exclusive marketing channels provided by fruit.

select. In other parts of Europe and around the Mediterranean, up to now they have used their own marketing channels. Based on the marketing concept developed by fruit.select, close to 250,000 ‘UEB 32642’ trees have been planted so far with an annual planting rate of 100,000 trees for the 2012/13 season and for 2013/14. The over- all target is to capture 3% of the Golden Delicious market in Europe.

Introduction of Opal through European Retailers

Special skills in marketing and branding are re- quired in order to successfully introduce an apple, where differentiation of a yellow to gold coloured apple and consumer recognition is extremely difficult. At the same time, limited volumes have to be exclusively allocated in order to become a serious partner for European retailers. Germany and the UK are countries that produce low volumes of Golden Delicious and moreover they are countries where there is a low appreciation of Golden Delicious by consumers when compared to countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

In 2009, Empire World Trade joined the program to introduce the Opal trademark apples exclusively to UK retailers. According to Robert Jarvis, co-founder of Empire World Trade, “UEB 32642 is the first variety with a truly outstanding eating quality. An apple that is easy to eat, being crisp, but not too hard. And once you have eaten one you want to eat another one.”

Apple variety ‘UEB 32642’ prior to harvest in the Lake Constance region

fruit.select

Apples of Opal fruit quality from Lake Constance.

fruit.select

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In 2011, SanLucar followed with exclusive production and marketing rights for Germany and Austria. From 2014 onwards, additional partners will join the international program in important regions where Golden Delicious is grown, such as France, Italy and Spain. Especially in France, significant interest in the apple can be observed as a lucrative alternative to conventionally and organically grown Golden Delicious.

Evaluation

Variety evaluation by the Swiss Research station of Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW sup- plies results for extension services and growers in order to minimize the risk of incorrect decisions being taken and to optimise growing techniques for new varieties. Out of a series of yellow-coloured Golden Delicious and Topaz crosses and after some experience with six-year- old trees, the scab-resistant variety ‘UEB 32642’

looks interesting in terms of growing habit and production characteristics, fruit quality as well as storage potential. “Apple varieties with scab resistance can help growers to reduce their plant protection treatments and the risk of loss of production” says Simon Egger, head of extension services and variety evaluation at the Swiss Federal Research Station of Agroscope Changins- Wädenswil ACW. At the same time, they match the expectations of consumers who want to eat fruit that has been treated with a minimum number of pesticide treatments.

In 2012, the ACW experimental orchard at Güttin- gen near Lake Constance (Bodensee) contained trees in the 6^th leaf. The trees were planted at the same time as Golden Delicious on M.9 rootstock T337. 50 trees were planted as feathered knip trees at a spacing of 3.5 x 1.2 m. The annual rainfall at this location is around 1,000 mm, the soils are heavy and loamy; there is no artificial irrigation.

Results

In the first five years, the yields of ‘UEB 32642’

were almost the same as those of Golden De- licious (Graph 2). In 2009 and 2010, the variety bloomed heavily, but also showed a strong natural drop at petal fall. Until now, no biennial bearing has been observed. The variety can be considered to produce volumes regularly and to produce high volumes. When compared to Golden Delicious, fruit diameter and fruit weight of the ‘UEB 32642’ variety is lower (Graph 3), but fruit size uniformity is similar to Golden Delicious.

Although ‘UEB 32642’ often flowers heavily followed by a heavy natural petal fall, manual-thin- ning is recommended in order to achieve an optimal fruit size and to remove underdeveloped fruit especially from the lower, central parts of the trees. In wet climatic conditions, tree training should support an open tree. When thinned properly, production is expected to be slightly lower than that of Golden Delicious. The variety has only medium-strong growth. Branch- es are slightly pending and show lots of spurs, especially at the periphery (outer side) of the trees. To achieve good yields and good fruit sizes

‘UEB 32642’ needs vegetative growth and vitality.

Therefore, the right selection of rootstock, ferti-

European meeting 26 participants from nine European countries met on 27 and 28 September at Lake Constance in order to visit pilot orchards to see Opal apples prior to harvest on both sides of the Lake in Germany and Swit- zerland. The meeting provided opportuni- ties to bring together nurseries, growers, extension specialists, marketing people and fruit marketers. The idea of building up a vertical value chain for the new trademark for the Opal apple is becoming substanti- ated in a commercial structure.

Dr. Jarosláv Tupý, breeder of the ‘UEB 32642’ variety (left) and Michael Weber (right)

in front of the original mother tree. fruit.select

Experimental orchard Güttingen, ‘UEB 32642’ in 5^th

leaf Simon Egger, ACW

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lizers and irrigation corresponding to the growing situation is important. ACW variety testing compares different training and pruning meth- ods, including mechanical pruning, to find out the optimal training system for the variety. Prior

to harvest, typical symptoms of Manganese and Magnesium nutrient deficiency can be observed on the leaves, without this having a negative ef- fect on fruit quality.

Fruit Quality

Throughout the first five years of experimenta- tion, around 30 to 40% of all apples showed an attractive orange blush, which provides a unique, characteristic visual feature (Graph 4). This can be regarded as a negative point as not all apples show a uniform single colour grade. On the other hand, it supports the trend to have something more natural and diversified. Furthermore, russet can be a problem depending on the growing location and plant protection strategy. On apples from young trees, russet has been observed also outside of the stem-end cavity area, when the trees are treated with copper or other products that can cause russet. The variety can be picked at the same time as or slightly before Golden Delicious depending on the storage conditions and intended storage time. Close to the perfect picking time, stripes of the green background colour turn a light yellow. At picking time, a firm- ness of 8.5 kg/cm2 and regularly a sugar level of 12° Brix show interesting internal quality param- eters, accompanied by a juicy fruit flesh and especially fruit-aromatic balanced flavour. Apples of the ‘UEB 32642’ variety stay firm during storage while sugar levels increase to 14° Brix and above. As the flavour of the Opal apple is unique, the Swiss Federal Research station of Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW continues to identify the best picking time.

Perspectives

Based on the marketing concept developed by fruit.select, the ‘UEB 32642’ variety will be grown both conventionally and organically.

When grown under Integrated Fruit Produc- tion (IFP) conditions with a reduced plant protection program the variety shows very good tree and fruit characteristics with regular yields and distinct internal fruit quality characteristics.

The Opal apple offers European consumers an alternative to Golden Delicious due to its unique flavour and multi-colour, yellow-gold skin finish.

In combination with scab resistance (vf), toler- ance to mildew and robust with respect to fire blight, the variety and trademark is attractive to both, consumers and growers.

6,0 6,0

15,7 15,0

18,2 18,4

23,5 24,0

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 Opal^®

2009 2010 2011 2nd leaf 2008

Golden Del. clone B

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

UEB 32642 (Opal®)

61-65mm 66-70mm 71-75mm 76-80mm 81-85mm 86-90mm

>90mm Golden Delicious

clone B.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

UEB 32642 (Opal®)

0-10%

11-20%

21-30%

31-40%

41-50%

51-60%

Golden Delicious clone B.

Graph 2: Production data Golden Delicious and Opal (2009-2011)

Graph 3: Amount of fruit per fruit size calibration class (diameter in mm) Golden Delicious and Opal

Graph 4: Amount of over colour (% of fruit surface) of Golden Delicious and Opal per calibration class, Güttingen 2011.

Participants of the International Opal Meeting at Lake Constance.

SanLucart

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