Apple Growers Will Try Japan Again Washington Apples Weren’t Well-Received By Japanese Last Year

After a poor showing in their first season, U.S. apple growers are taking another slice at the Japanese market.

But they’ll have to overcome a problem: Japanese consumers don’t seem to think Washington state Delicious apples live up to their name.

“They look beautiful but they taste bad,” Tokyo grocery store owner Shoji Iwasaki said Tuesday as Washington apples officially went on sale in Japan for their second season.

Last January was the first time American apples went on sale in Japan since Tokyo lifted a decadesold ban on the fruit. Encouraged by heavy media coverage, Japanese flocked to their supermarkets and bought around 7,000 tons of apples in just a month.

But then the U.S. fortunes turned sour. Customers complained that Washington apples didn’t have the sweet, juicy taste of their Japanese competitors.

U.S. growers also failed to seize a price advantage, as Japanese growers fought back by selling at a discount less-than-perfect apples that previously would have been turned into apple juice.

The result was a plunge in sales during February and March. By the time the season ended March 31, only 9,000 tons were sold, well below original projections of 12,000-15,000 tons.

This time U.S. apple officials are scaling down expectations by not giving a target figure, and they’re tailoring the fruit closer to what Japanese seem to want.

“The Japanese consumer definitely has a sweet tooth,” said Brent Evans, Asia marketing director for the Washington Apple Commission.

He said it’s easy to make apples sweeter by leaving them on the tree a few weeks longer, and that’s what Washington growers have done this year.

Another factor that may have turned off Japanese buyers was the waxing that Washington growers add to give apples a bright red sheen.

To Japanese eyes, Evans said, the waxed U.S. apples may have looked unnaturally shiny, almost like candy. This time, many of the apples being imported aren’t waxed.

“It’s fair to think of the Red Delicious apples this year as a completely different product from the ones you ate last year,” said Jimmy Uehara, a Washington apple official in Tokyo.

But the lingering bad taste is having an impact. Daiei, Japan’s biggest supermarket chain, sold 1,400 tons of U.S. apples last season after setting a target of 1,900 tons. This time, said spokeswoman Haruko Toyama, it only plans to sell 490 tons.

“We sold them last year, but we’re not going to do so this year,” said Seiki Sasaki, the owner of a fruit store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. “Of the people who bought (U.S. apples) last year, not a single one came back to buy again.”

Washington officials also still find it difficult to compete on price. Daiei is selling a 220-gram (7.7-ounce) apple for 78 yen (78 cents) but it’s possible to buy a much larger Japanese apple in a bag of four or six for around 100 yen, or $1 apiece.

Meanwhile, technical talks with the Japanese government about importing new varieties of Washington apples are still at an early stage, said Mark Dries of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Currently only imports of Red Delicious and Golden Delicious are permitted.