Ambrosia Apples Jump into Top 10

Over the past 13 weeks, a record 14,022 supermarkets put Ambrosia Apples from CMI on the shelves for consumers. This push resulted in Nielsen data that shows Ambrosia ranked #9 in total dollars among all apple varieties and had the strongest growth of any apple in the top 10 nationally for the time period. “Ambrosia has broken into a new level,” says Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing for CMI. “The biggest challenge for any club variety apple is to make the jump from being a niche item to a year-round item. The sales data show that Ambrosia have bridged the gap to becoming a ‘must have’ apple for retailers.” With a large national crop, apple prices and retail shelf prices have been lower throughout the entire 2014/15 season. Over the most recent 13-week period from November through January, Nielsen scan data shows that total U.S. apple dollars increased less than 1% while volume increased only slightly by 2.3%.  In contrast, during this same period Ambrosia apple sales skyrocketed and dollars jumped 19%. The increase in Ambrosia sales led performance of the top 10 apple varieties during the period. Honeycrisp dollars increased by 15% followed by Pink Lady ( 7%) and Granny Smith ( 2%). All other apple varieties in the top 10 declined in year over year sales during the period. “It’s just really gratifying to see consumers and retailers alike discover Ambrosia,” says Lutz. “The sales success speaks for itself.”