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The new South African apple variety, Bigbucks, trademarked as FLASH GALA, has had a strong first harvest.
With more than 1.5 million trees already in the ground, the full-red Gala apple, discovered by Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing's new variety expert Buks Nel, has remained true to type with zero reversions thus far.
While export clients in the Far East who especially like full-red apples are pleased, the success in the local market is particularly encouraging to the Bigbucks Growers' Association.
Chairperson Calla du Toit, himself a grower and Tru-Cape's procurement manager, explains that, as an early Gala, Bigbucks and its fruit FLASH GALA fills a much-needed gap in supply from early February until the other full-red varieties come to fruition. The fact that they can be picked in one or two goes, is a major plus for the grower.
Du Toit adds that the fruit has had such a strong reception that customers have asked to purchase Bigbucks trees to plant themselves.
"I have never witnessed such a positive response to an apple variety before," he remarks, adding that because the Bigbucks Growers' Association is grower owned, any lessons learned while in the field are shared among the growers so that they can all improve.
Bigbucks is a particularly good variety for the Warm Bokkeveld region of the Ceres valley. Because it is an early variety it means it can be harvested earlier and the grower can receive an early income too.
Tru-Cape's quality manager Henk Griessel says with FLASH GALA they have the opportunity to give the South African customer a full red apple.
"We even developed a colour chart to ack the fruit with the darkest colour under the brand FLASH GALA,” he says.
With more than 1.5 million trees already in the ground, the full-red Gala apple, discovered by Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing's new variety expert Buks Nel, has remained true to type with zero reversions thus far.
While export clients in the Far East who especially like full-red apples are pleased, the success in the local market is particularly encouraging to the Bigbucks Growers' Association.
Chairperson Calla du Toit, himself a grower and Tru-Cape's procurement manager, explains that, as an early Gala, Bigbucks and its fruit FLASH GALA fills a much-needed gap in supply from early February until the other full-red varieties come to fruition. The fact that they can be picked in one or two goes, is a major plus for the grower.
Du Toit adds that the fruit has had such a strong reception that customers have asked to purchase Bigbucks trees to plant themselves.
"I have never witnessed such a positive response to an apple variety before," he remarks, adding that because the Bigbucks Growers' Association is grower owned, any lessons learned while in the field are shared among the growers so that they can all improve.
Bigbucks is a particularly good variety for the Warm Bokkeveld region of the Ceres valley. Because it is an early variety it means it can be harvested earlier and the grower can receive an early income too.
Tru-Cape's quality manager Henk Griessel says with FLASH GALA they have the opportunity to give the South African customer a full red apple.
"We even developed a colour chart to ack the fruit with the darkest colour under the brand FLASH GALA,” he says.
