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APPLES
It’s perhaps the best over-the-counter prescription available, as the old adage goes, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” Apples are proven to help lower cholesterol and combat cancer. A primary item in your produce department for years, apples present many fun and unique opportunities to enhance sales. As a proud grower of Washington Apples, we at Yakima Fresh are enthusiastic about apples and getting consumers to eat more! Join us as we journey through the wonderful world of apples.
DISPLAY AND MERCHANDISINGNG
The average U.S. consumer eats 19 pounds of apples per year, which equates to about an apple a week! Giving your department the tools to educate consumers on the benefits of eating apples and increasing consump- tion from one apple a week to two can quickly grow your category.
USE SIGNAGE/POP: Yakima Fresh enjoys working with partners to create eye-popping, inspiring POS material to assist in the education and sales of apples. Ranging from our “Fit for Life” campaign to a hand-crafted grower profile, we help connect consumers to the orchard. Let us help you create the signage you want, highlighting variety names, variety flavors and food pairings.
PLAY UP THE COLOR: In addition to signage telling the profile of each variety, utilize the unique coloring of each variety to give a color break to the display. This can drive your consumers’ curiosity to try something new. And don’t be afraid to sample new and old varieties. The more they know, the easier it is to buy.
INCLUDE SOME PARTNERS: Be sure to cross-merchandise to create impulse and added purchases. For an easy cross-merchandising set, put a pie crust near the apples to spur customers to make their own fresh pie (most recipes call for 2 to 3 pounds of apples. Quite an increase in sales!)
PROMOTION
Let the Yakima Fresh team help you create some buzz in your apple cate-
gory. Join us in the fight against cancer. With our partnership with the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) we can educate consumers on the health benefits of apples. By educating today, we can help the health of those tomorrow, which is not only a reason to eat, but a reason to buy. Let us support you locally as we partner nationally with the AICR. From POS educational mate- rial to getting involved in local cancer fights, Yakima Fresh is here to educate.
Add some fun to consumption with bobbing for apples during Halloween, giving the teacher an apple in May for teacher’s appreciation week, or joining the fight against cancer in “Mo”vember with mustache-powered apple adver- tising.
Healthy promotions are another proven avenue to boost the category. Recent studies linked apples to helping with everything from weight loss to different types of cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and even asthma. The more we can educate, the more people will eat. Yakima Fresh wants to help you make that one-apple-per-week eater into a one-apple-per-day eater.
Stop comparing apples to apples. Instead, help consumers compare apples to coffee. Various studies show the benefits from waking up to an apple far exceed the benefits from a cup of coffee. The apple’s natural sugar provides an energy boost. The fruit’s good carbs fuel the body and don’t initiate drastic energy slumps like coffee. Also rich in fiber, apples aid in the absorption of sugar into the body.
of your staple items, from Honeycrisp and Gala’s to Red Delicious to the next big thing. Yakima Fresh is there for you as a leader in year-round supply of the varieties that mean the most to your category. We believe the perfect apple starts in the orchard, and its beauty and taste is reliant on a perfected supply chain. Come visit us in the Pacific North- west to see a vision of the perfect apple. Variety charts and availability available at Yakimafresh.com
FUN FACTS
• 80 to 130 calories per apple (average size).
• 25% of an apple is air — that’s why it floats.
• It takes about 36 apples to make 1 gallon of apple cider.
• High in fiber: 5 grams of fiber per apple, that’s more than a serving of oatmeal — 2/3 of which comes from the peel.
• Largest apple to record is 3 pounds • Average European eats 46 pounds of apples annually versus the U.S.
Consumer at 19 pounds.
• Apples are a member of the Rose
family.
Fact Resources: U.S. Apple Association & Washington Apple Commission
YAKIMA FRESH
111 University Parkway, Suite 101 Yakima, WA 98901
509.833.3135 www.yakimafresh.com
4 / MARCH 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
MASTERS OF MERCHANDISING
YAKIMA FRESH
HANDLING TIPS
• Don’t dump; hand stack.
• Watch color schemes.
• Temperature changes: Apples ripen
10 times faster at room temperature. This leaves most varieties with low pressure after only four to five days at room temperature.
•Don’t mist your apples: misting causes a white buildup, or Calcium (which is OK to eat, but doesn’t look that great). Misting also can make your apples dull.
• “One bad apple spoils the whole lot” — it can! Apples are ethylene producers, which can affect other fruits, vegetable and flowers. (This gives you an additional answer when consumers ask why their produce goes bad in their refrigerator.)
• Watch where you store your apples in the cooler. Apples can cause:
- Russetting of lettuce.
- Increased ripening of tomatoes.
- Sprouting of potatoes.
- Yellowing of broccoli and cauli-
flower.
• If you are going to cut apples for
display, use lemon juice on your knife (or a porcelain knife) to slow the browning process.
VARIETIES
With more than 7,500 types of apples grown worldwide, priority is a must when choosing what varieties to carry. For now, we are proud to be a grower