Cosmic Crisp Popularity Continues To Grow

The Cosmic Crisp apple, developed at Washington State University, has proven itself to be a very popular apple variety in a field that’s somewhat crowded.  Michael Schadler, president of the Washington Apple Commission, said Comic's increase in volume has been steady over the past five years.

“We’re still in kind of the period with Cosmic Crisp where, you know, it really ramped up big in volume and in almost an unprecedented way over the last five years," Schadler said.  "So, I think, you know, consumers in the market are still catching up a little bit on that variety, and once things catch up, I think it’s a variety that will do well from a market perspective and from a pricing perspective. But we’re not quite there yet.”

Schadler hopes they can also help Cosmic Crisp on the international side.

“We really are, from WAC’s strategic perspective, wanting to push that variety in international markets to introduce it to consumers because it’s such a great eating apple," he said.  "And I think, you know, it ships well and as we ramp up volume as an industry continually, because even though it’s ramped up a lot already, and it’s about tied with Fuji for the number five variety, we see that continuing to increase to the point where in the future, it’s probably going to be a top three apple for the industry.”

WSU said the Cosmic Crisp is a cross between Honeycrisp and Enterprise with excellent storage qualities.

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