New York Apple Sales is the marketing arm for Empire Fruit Growers Co-op, which represents numerous apple growers that are spread across New York state.

Kaari Stannard, president of the cooperative, explained that last year’s New York Produce Show had excellent results and a great turnout.

“The timing of the show is very good for us,” said Stannard. “It is after harvesting is completed, and our final crop numbers are compiled. At the show we will be discussing the quality of our crop, which is excellent this year. We have wonderful color on our fruit and sizes are great.

“We will also be discussing selling imported product such as ‘Koru’ apples grown on plumac trees, which are commonly referred to as ‘Koru’ Plumac apples.”

The “Koru” Plumac was developed and is produced in New Zealand. It is touted as a very exciting new grower-friendly apple that combines high productivity, large fruit size, high pack-out, excellent storage with no storage disorders, crisp, aromatic, honey-like flavor and excellent consumer quality.

The “Koru” Plumac is under controlled production and is exclusively available from McGrath Nurseries Ltd,. who holds the world rights to production and marketing. The apple variety is managed for Geoff and Marilyn Plunkett who discovered the variety as a chance seedling in their garden on the South Island of New Zealand.

McGrath Nurseries has provided the dominant role in development and commercialization of this excellent apple variety by undertaking many years of thorough independent scientific testing and organizing a group of testers and growers throughout New Zealand. This has been followed by Plant Variety Rights, or PVR, and trademark protection, consumer testing and commercialization. The apple is currently testing worldwide and a marketing team is being organized to develop the apple to its fullest potential.

New York Apple Sales is also strongly marketing the two newly named New York Apples. Previously referred to as NY1 and NY2, the official names were revealed earlier this year. The Ruby Frost is being marketed as cool, crisp and craveable, and the Snap Dragon is touted as having a monster crunch.

New York Apples Sales is fully compliant with GFSI and PTI. The company is the largest and most geographically diverse sales agency in New York state. Its growers and packing facilities are located in all major growing regions in the state, insuring a consistent supply of quality fruit with greater packing and shipping flexibility.

Its goal is to provide its customers with the highest quality fruit at the best possible price while positively supporting its grower base now and in the future.

“We ship approximately one-third of New York’s fresh crop every week to retail chain stores, wholesalers, foodservice customers and terminal markets throughout the U.S.,” said Stannard.

“And we export our product to Asia, Central America, Israel, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. We also import fruits directly from Chile to satisfy growing consumer demand for Southern Hemisphere fruit.”

She added that new to the company’s sales team is Michael Harwood. He joined the company in September.

“Although he is new to the industry, he is eager to learn,” said Stannard.

She also noted that New York Apple Sales has recently added two new bagging lines as well as 20 controlled atmosphere storage rooms.