Why Should Apples be Red? "Yellow Apple" Bring Change to Japan

Visit any grocery store in Japan, and you will see apples of all sizes and all colors, too. Not every color of course but apples are not always red anymore.

Yes, we see more yellow apples and at fair prices, too. Why yellow apples? Because, yellow apples are easier to cultivate - that is, red apples take more time and effort and also yellow apples taste just as good.

Traditional apple trees grew as early as in the Heian Era in Japan. Red apples we consume today were imported from Europe in the Meiji Era. Red apples fit for gifts and apple farmers will take extra time to enhance red color by periodically rotating the fruits. Now, apple farming is aging and more farmers are switching to less time-consuming yellow apples.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, they say, and sure enough apples, red or yellow, abound in citric acid and vitamin C. The red apple contains polyphenol called anthocyanin and the yellow procyanidin. Procyanidin is said to have anti-oxidative effect to reduce fatigue.

Currently, a brand called Toki is selling best of yellow apples with a sugar content of 14. It was first marketed in 2004 and its market value is rising. As of September end, its wholesale price was 273 yen per kilogram against Fuji (red) 289 yen and Turuga (red) 273 yen.
As aforementioned, red apple farming take time and energy, rotating and bagging and more extra care. Yellow apple farming is less strenuous to carry on and more farmers are turning yellow.

In Aomori, the largest apple farming prefecture, the total acreage for yellow apple farming doubled over six years to 317 hectares. Shipment proportionally increased up to 10 thousand tons, second to Fuji.

Once again, why should apples be red?