Sweet tango and the Retail Report - Sept. 26

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I found a small box of Sweet Tango apples on my chair. As recent coverage in The Packer indicates the variety - a progeny of the Honeycrisp - is being highly touted for its full flavor and attractive appearance. From David Mitchell's story:

SweeTango, a cross of Honeycrisp and Zestar, will be available in limited quantities starting in late August 2009, said Tim Byrne, vice president of sales and marketing for Lake City, Minn.-based Pepin Heights Orchards Inc. and president of Next Big Thing, a cooperative of 45 growers also based in Lake City.Byrne said the new variety has higher brix levels and more acidity than Honeycrisp, giving it a more complex flavor profile. He said the SweeTango is more of a deep, rich red color compared to the mottled Honeycrisp, which is red and yellow.

Meanwhile, here is the summary from the Sept. 26 National Retail Report from the USDA:

Fruit Ads Decline Significantly, Apples and Pears Featured Widely
Fall themed ads were seen throughout the country this week with an emphasis on items to celebrate Halloween. In addition to the typical candy promotions, most retailers heavily featured a variety of apples, carving pumpkins, other decorative pumpkins, a variety of squash, and potted mums. A few ads highlighting Rosh Hashanah and Hispanic Heritage Month were also noted. Many retailers also used “10 for $10” promotions quite often this week. Overall, fresh produce ads were down more than 8%. Fruit ad activity declined more than 21% this week and vegetable activity increased roughly 9%. Despite the decline in fruit ads, the top 5 featured items were predominantly fruits. The top 5 included: Pears, grapes, tomatoes on the vine, peaches, and strawberries. The majority of fruit ads continued to be concentrated on a few items and vegetable ads continued to be distributed widely across the reported items. Pears alone made up 19% of all fruit items. Pears, grapes, peaches and strawberries comprised about 55% of total fruit ads. Retailers featured an abundance of seasonally available produce in addition to the items in this report. A variety of apple features were noted with the most prevalent being Galas. Squash were also noted quite often and the most featured varieties were butternut, acorn, and spaghetti.