Washington Business Winter 2020 | Washington Business | Page 39

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The Cosmic Crisp is known for its longevity. Marketers say it can be
stored for a year, easily.
Matson, like any good farmer, is cautiously optimistic about the
launch of the new variety. He hopes that “we don’t have a problem
with, one, retailers adopting it and wanting to sell it, and two, that the
people that eat it like it, and ask for it.”
The Cosmic Crisp can only be grown in Washington. This is in
contrast to other varieties like the Honeycrisp, which can also be
grown in strong apple states like Michigan and New York.
“The Cosmic is exclusive to us,” Matson said.
Washington apple growers tend to be “high margin producers,”
he explained, since labor and shipping costs are higher compared to
other states.
“We need to have a high margin, and we’re hoping that the Cosmic
Crisp will be a high margin variety,” he said.
“We have done more evaluation on this apple than I think has
happened in any other variety,” she said. “So, we’ve attempted
with our partnerships with industry to mitigate as much of that
risk as possible.”
Right now, 12 million trees are in the ground throughout
Washington, working to survive the winter.
They’ll be back in business soon.
“By far, this is something huge for the apple growing industry in the
state of Washington,” Tsui said. “It’s obviously a big, big deal in terms
of the economic impact and what the industry believes is a winner in
a new red apple.”
ag school creation
No story about the Cosmic Crisp release is complete without a nod to
Dr. Bruce Barritt, the WSU researcher who created the variety in 1997.
Barritt’s creation at first was called WA 38, just a number in a series of
thousands of seedlings created by the breeding program team.
Barritt managed the WSU apple breeding program until 2008. His
successor, Kate Evans, said the apple lives up to its name.
“It’s a very crisp, very juicy apple and that I think makes it stand
out from most of the varieties,” she said. The apple has a good mix of
sweetness and tartness, and is “very robust” in storage, she added.
Evans is confident in the apple’s future.
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