He said, “The quality of our apples this season is very, very good. The colour is great, the fruit is clean and the size is excellent. It’s been a dry season in Hawke’s Bay so we’ve had a good run. Hot Autumn days and recent colder nights has helped colour the apples well.”

The Royal Gala harvest has now finished in New Zealand. Braeburn is currently being harvested and in the next few weeks, Fuji and Granny Smiths will be coming off the trees.

“The pack house is at full speed packing for our main markets across Asia, Europe and the US.  We are excited about this years crop hitting the shelves as I think our consumers will be impressed by the taste,” Brasell said. “Our Hawke’s Bay apples are sweet, tasty and the brix levels are high which is great for the palate.”

Bostock New Zealand has recently opened a new, state of the art cool store, which is currently at full capacity. The new facility has the technology and innovation to provide customers with full traceability from the Hawke’s Bay orchards to consumers across the world.

“The apple industry is growing to meet international demand and every day we are working to ensure we have cutting edge technology to deliver premium apples to our customers,” Brasell said.

The new coolstore has an, advanced scanning system, which ensures each bin is identified and each apple can be traced back to the orchard where it was grown.

“The NZ apple industry is establishing very strong relationships with the Asian market. It’s a market that has a clear focus on fruit quality. Our organic apples are in high demand because we grow them naturally, they are GMO Free and we don’t use pesticides.  Demand from our traditional markets in Europe and USA is very strong and we will not be able to satisfy global sales requirements for organic apples.”

“The appearance and sweetness of our apples is very important. So we can attract premium prices every season. There’s an amazing buzz in our sunny Hawke’s Bay orchards with our 600 staff very busy. We are all working hard to get the apples off the trees and across the world to our customers.”

Bostock New Zealand reports that it will be harvesting the last of its apple varieties at the end of May and exporting its apples through to July.