South African apple growers have seen a 30% increase in demand for Pink Lady apples in Europe this season compared to last year.
Fruit exporter Tru-Cape attained a number of firsts with the 2025 Pink Lady harvest, one of which is exporting more Pink Lady apples to Russia than ever before – more than 100 000 cartons.
Growers affiliated with Tru-Cape have been investing heavily in improving the quality of their orchards and setting ambitious goals for packout percentages by enhancing the fruit’s colour development, quality and yield consistency.
At the Ceres Fruit Growers packhouse, packouts for Pink Lady apples reached the highest on record for the business, at nearly 75%, and at the Two-a-Day packhouse in Grabouw they were 8 percentage points higher than last year.
Among the innovations that have aided growers in improving packhouse percentages is introducing shade netting, which filters sunlight to reduce sunburn and promote more even and consistent colouring. Some growers introduced automated overhead irrigation to lower the daytime orchard temperature during the fruit ripening phase, and one grower in Greyton increased his Pink Lady yield by about 20% by placing reflective mulch under his apple trees, which improved fruit colour by allowing more light to reach the fruit.
Tru-Cape procurement manager Calla du Toit said a key turning point in the group’s growth and marketing strategy came when they realised that they could significantly boost profitability by increasing the proportion of Pink Lady apples packed versus Cripps Pink. Pink Lady is a trademark that demands certain quality levels, while Cripps Pink is an apple cultivar that can be marketed as Pink Lady if it conforms to the brand’s quality requirements.
“We made it our goal to get closer to 80% Pink Lady per hectare, and we’ve come a long way. These results show that the strategy is working.”
Du Toit said feedback from international retailers over the past year had been overwhelmingly positive. Tru-Cape’s geographic proximity to the UK and European markets allows for faster, more flexible delivery, with added-value services such as flow wrapping and date coding.
In order to protect the value of the Pink Lady brand, Tru-Cape emphasises quality over quantity and is performing ongoing trials with new colour-enhanced strains, adoption of precision production techniques and continued refining of its systems to keep improving its offering.
