気ままなリライト３１
No blushing apples are minimizing the aging problem many apple farms are faced with. In many municipalities known for apple production, apple farms are forced to give up the pleasure of making the apples blush to reduce the burden of tree care on aging farmers. They are breeding and cultivating new varieties of apple trees with different skin colors of fruits to pursue better taste. Dealing with the aging population in apple-producing areas across the country, more and more apple farmers are preferring to cultivate yellow apple cultivars bred to eliminate the trait of blushing.
Yellow apple cultivars are serving as the key to dealing with the aging problem many apple farmers are faced with as growing yellow apple cultivars requires less care than growing red apple cultivars. Many apple-producing municipalities are having a hard time retaining the number of apple farm households due to an age-related labor shortage. Those municipalities are encouraging aging apple farmers to cultivate yellow apple trees as a yellow apple tree saves farmers from pruning unnecessary foliage and branches to expose every skin of the apple to sunlight to make the apple blush. A 40-year-old apple farmer says, “Growing apple trees without making the apples blush saves farmers 70 % of their energies.”
In apple production areas across the country, apple farmers have been replacing red apple cultivars with yellow apple cultivars. According to one of the JA groups in Tsugaru City, the shipments of apples with yellow or green skins accounted for 18.4 % of the total apple shipments in 2019, compared with 16.4% in 2010. According to a JA group member in Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, the shipments of a yellow apple cultivar called Shinano-gold increased by 2% in 2019, compared with that in 2008 while the total apple shipments remained the same.
Land areas of cultivation for yellow apple cultivars have been getting bigger, thanks to agricultural subsidies granted to farmers planting a new apple tree cultivar. The land area planted with yellow apple cultivars accounted for up to 17 % of the total land area planted with all varieties of apples in 2016 in Aomori Prefecture. An apple farmer in the prefecture is assigning one quarter of his farmland to the cultivation of yellow apple trees. The land area planted with Shinano-gold increased by 5 % in 2018, year-on-year in Nagano Prefecture.
Newly-bred yellow apple cultivars with delicious tastes, high in sugar are gaining attention of customers, thanks to buzzworthy marketing tactics. Among the newly-bred yellow cultivars are a so-called Gunma-Meigetsu (Harvest moon) bred in Gunma Prefecture with a crisp texture, fresh and honey flavor, a so-called Haruka bred in Iwate Prefecture and a Kinsei (Venus) bred in Aomori Prefecture. Many supermarkets and fruit gift shops are selling a package with a red apple and a yellow apple to magnetize customers with the color contrast effect.