Tuesday July 26th, 2022

The apple is a worldwide known fruit and protagonist of biblical stories, fairy tales, logo for a multinational company, scientific theories and also regional festivities. The apple is all of that and much more! It is an option for a nutritive and delicious food, which brings several benefits for the health and generates employment and income for all the productive chain.

Did you know that eating an apple a day helps controlling the appetite, helps the digestion and oral health, hydrates, replaces the energy and reduces the cholesterol levels? And for those that eat the fruit without the peel, there goes an important information: it is in the peel that the fibers, vitamins and minerals are concentrated.

In Brazil, the main varieties produced and consumed by the population are the New Zealander Gala and the Japanese Fuji. And in other countries, the same species are produced, besides the Red Delicious and Ambrosia.

Just like other fruits, the Brazilian apples are considered to be the tastiest in the world. For the CEO of the Brazilian Association of Apple Producers (ABPM), Moisés Lopes de Albuquerque, the technologies and all the processes related to food security in the productive chain of the apple replicate what exists of most modern at world level.

Currently, Brazil is among the ten major apple producers in the world. In the 2020/2021 harvest, it was produced around 1.3 million tons of apples, mainly by the Southern region, due to the colder climate conditions.

In 2020/2021 harvest, Santa Catarina harvested less apples than Rio Grande Sul, a total of 617 thousand tons. And Rio Grande do Sul state produced 630 thousand tons, according to ABPM data. The fall in production was caused by climate changes.

Epagri/Ciram performed a mapping by satellite imaging in the apple orchards of Santa Catarina and confirmed that the municipality of São Joaquim is the main producer of the fruit in the country, with an area of eight thousand six hundred hectares, representing 26% of all orchards in Brazil.

Recently, the Fuji apple produced in Santa Catarina won the certificate of Geographic Indication (IG). The recognition encompasses an area of almost five thousand square kilometers in the region of São Joaquim, which includes the municipalities of Bom Jardim da Serra, Urupema, Urubici and Painel.

Apple growing stands out in Brazilian fruit farming due to the generation of Jobs, as the fruit needs to be harvested manually, which demands a lot of labor. During the year, 45,000 direct jobs and 90,000 indirect jobs are created.

According to Moisés Albuquerque, the main objective of apple growing is supplying the fresh fruit to the consumer and, for this reason the harvest should be so careful in order to avoid any damage to the fruit.

“In the same area, we need 150 times more labor than other crops, such as grains, in which the harvesting process is automated. There is no technology available in the world yet which could replace the human hands”, said the CEO of ABPM.

The quality of the Brazilian apple is known in many countries, such as the United Kingdom and the European Union. Together, both markets represent around 20% of the exports from Brazil. Other destinations which import the apple are the Middle East, Colombia, Russia and Bangladesh. In 2021, Brazil exported around 100 thousand tons of fresh fruit, with a revenue of US$ 74.3 million, exceeding the 2020 value, which was US$ 33 million.

In Brazil, during the months of June, July and August, the traditional festivities of São João (Saint John) take place. They are known for the typical food, mainly the sweets, such as canjica (hominy), cakes, paçoca (ground peanut sweet), pé de moleque (peanut brittle bar) and the so famous Candy Apples. How about learning the recipe of this sweet that children and adults love?

Ingredients:

10 apples
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of gooseberry syrup
1/2 cup of water
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Oil to grease the tin

How to prepare:

Wash the apples and let them dry. In a pan, mix the sugar, the gooseberry syrup, the water and the lemon juice. Stir it on low heat and let it boil for 15 minutes or until the syrup hardens when in contact with the water. Put the apples in sticks and dip one by one in the syrup. Put them on a greased surface and let them rest for one hour.

After trying the Candy Apple recipe, know more about the producers and exporters of Brazilian apples – https://frutasdobrasil.org/pb/exportadores/