For American Growers, the Future is Spelled F-U-J-I
The Toyotas on American roads and the Sonys in American recreation rooms may soon be joined by Fujis in American lunch boxes--a Japanese-bred apple that seems to be the fruit of the future.
Growers say Japanese bud wood grafted onto trees in the central Washington apple belt produces an apple that is crisper, tastier and more durable than Red Delicious, the industry standard since the 1920s.
The Fujis also are bringing much higher wholesale prices--not a minor consideration after three consecutive years of poor prices that have caused many growers to reassess the heart-shaped Red Delicious.
“There will be more change in the apple industry in the state of Washington in the next 10 years than in the last 30,” said Brooke Peterson, a Washington State University tree-fruit extension agent in Yakima County.
He likened Washington apple growers, who produce 60% of the nation’s crop, to U.S. auto makers who were “so big and so successful for so long” that they failed to respond to the Japanese challenge.
“All of a sudden they are nipping us in the heels,” he said.
As a result, growers must produce a better and more diversified product, he said. Currently, 70% of Washington’s apple crop is Red Delicious.
“We’re in a revolution in supplying the public with an apple more satisfactory to their needs,” said Grady Auvil, a legendary grower from Orondo who pioneered Washington production of the tangy Granny Smith a decade ago.
Auvil, 84 years old and still out in his Columbia River orchard every day, is planting only Fujis on his 500 acres now.
“Twenty to 30% of the time the Red Delicious arrives to consumers in poor condition,” Auvil said.
The Fuji, first bred in Japan 35 years ago, has a longer shelf life, and shrivels on the outside before it softens inside, Auvil said. Too often, consumers complain of biting into a good-looking Red Delicious that is mealy.
Tastes in apples change just as tastes in clothing, music or other products change, some growers say. Where consumers once clamored for bright red colors and the heart shape, now they are demanding better taste.
The oblong-shaped Fuji has dull red stripes over a greenish-yellow base.
Red Delicious apples cover more than 120,000 of the state’s 160,000 acres of apple orchards. Trees take several years to bear fruit, so it will be some time before a flood of Fujis hits supermarkets, said Chuck St. John, a spokesman for the Washington Apple Commission.
He also said it is much too early to write off the Red Delicious. “It is not an inherently bad apple. Otherwise consumers wouldn’t buy it,” he said. “We can grow Red Delicious and Golden Delicious better than they can be grown almost anyplace else in the world.”
The Red Delicious first was produced in a Midwest orchard in 1870 and was transported to Washington soon after. By 1915, the state was the nation’s leading apple producer.
But growers are now struggling. Two seasons ago, the crop was severely damaged by excessive heat, and last year’s sales and prices were hurt by the Alar controversy. This year, the record crop of 78 million 42-pound boxes of eating apples has been bringing prices beneath the cost of production.
Where boxes of Red Delicious sell for about $10 per box wholesale, Fujis sell for up to $40, said Jeff Main of the Market News Service in Yakima.
Market News Service does not officially record Fuji prices, because there are so few available, he said. But it is likely that will change in the next three or four years, he said.
The Fuji craze is reminiscent of the rush to plant Granny Smiths a decade ago. That tart apple now accounts for 5.5% of the state’s crop.
When Granny Smiths debuted, they too brought much higher prices. Now they are bringing about $15 per box, still better than Red Delicious.
