“Our volume of the ‘Kiku’ club variety is up considerably this year,” John Rice, president of Rice Fruit Co. in Gardners, PA, told The Produce News. “We are getting close to our marketing quota, which means that we have a nice supply of this outstanding apple variety this season. Under our licensing agreement, we’re permitted to sell 100,000 packed boxes annually, and this year we are up to about 75,000.”

Rice Fruit, he explained, is the only company in the eastern third portion of the country that is licensed to produce the apple. The patent on the apple is owned by Kiku Srl., located in Bolzano, the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. The company discovered the apple in Japan, where it was developed, and purchased full rights to it.

President, John Rice, with Vice President of Operations, Ben Rice, of Rice Fruit Co., proudly displaying the company's club variety, ‘Kiku’ apple.Production of the trademarked apple variety is designated to specific companies in the world. Columbia Marketing International, commonly referred to as CMI, owns the North American rights to the “Kiku.” The marketing group, Columbia Fruit Packing, located in Washington state, has designated Rice Fruit as one of the few producers in the country.

“In the future, we believe we’ll be designated a larger quota, but it’s not yet been decided,” said Rice. “Everyone involved agrees that we don’t want to produce more than the demand calls for, but we’re finding the demand has outstripped the supply much further than expected so far. Sales are strong and we’ve had more letters from consumers about how they enjoy the ‘Kiku’ than we’ve ever had on any variety that we grow, so we have good feelings about the continued growth.”

He added that Sam’s Club will be carrying the “Kiku,” and four or five other major retailers are lined up to carry it.

Rice explained the profile of the “Kiku,” making it understandable as to why it’s an instant hit with consumers. For starters, it has the highest brix level of any apple that the company has ever produced.

“In a numerical comparison, when you bite into a sweet apple you expect to have a brix, or sugar, level of 12,” he said. “That’s about what we get from our Red Delicious variety. The Golden Delicious and Fuji apples are even sweeter. The Fuji, which is the sweetest apple we produced prior to the ‘Kiku,’ is around 15 to 16 brix. The ‘Kiku’ has a brix level that runs from between 16 and even as high as 20. But it has more than just sweetness. It has more apple juice intensity — a rounder and more complete apple flavor. It also has a crunchy-type of bite, and a very pleasing texture in the mouth. These are the three things that people look for in club varieties; flavor, sweetness and crispy texture.”

He noted that when the people from Kiku Srl. first bit into the apple in Japan, they knew they had a great apple.

The “Kiku” grows very well in Rice Fruit’s region of the country due to the climate, including the heat units, and soil, which when combined, results in a special microclimate.

Rice also pointed out that in late October, company executives had meetings with engineers and architects because it has to plan to accommodate the additional apples that its growing partners are producing.

“More apples are a good thing if you’re prepared,” he pointed out. “We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on bins in recent times. The wooden bins we used to use ran around $30 or $40 dollars. The new plastic ones that can hold large volumes run as much as $145. Part of that expense is in freight costs to get them to us. The mold is so huge that you can’t put a factory just anywhere. The companies that produce them are in California and Washington. Getting one across the country alone costs around $25. We’ve invested around $2.5 million dollars in plastic bins.”

Rice Fruit will be exhibiting at the New York Produce Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center North Hall on Dec. 2-4, and will be in the same booth with CMI. On hand to greet customers from Rice Fruit at the event will be Brenda Briggs, vice president of marketing, and Valerie Ramsburg, sales associate.