Montague harvests first Australian volumes of Kissabel

Montague harvested a small quantity of Kissabel apples for the first time in March as part of the global Ifoed campaign. 

Montague and its network of growers manage over 5,850 trees currently growing across only 1.6ha of land. According to Montague, Kissabel trees are characterised by beautiful pink blossoms in the spring which transform into medium and large sized, red-blushed fruits in the autumn. 

Kissabel acts as an umbrella brand to varieties of coloured-flesh apples – from pink to intense red – developed over the last 20 years with the aid of exclusively natural breeding techniques by French breeder IFO. The Ifored programme - an international partnership involving 14 of the world’s largest production and marketing companies including Montague – was created to manage the project. 

This year, the Australian harvest managed by Montague is anticipated to reach close to 36 tonnes. It will be available through selected restaurants, speciality bakeries and outlets. A limited number of retail stores will be selling to test the market including The Orchard at Montague in Narre Warren North, Victoria. The expected crop will be available at a commercial level in later years.  

Other countries in the Southern Hemisphere will also start to harvest the Kissabel in March including Yummy Fruit (New Zealand), Dutoit (South Africa), Unifrutti (Chile) and Moño Azul (Argentina). 

“With an ambitious and bold marketing approach, the global strategy is to define our target group and align the Kissabel communication to build campaigns that will stand out in the market,” said Angela Bracken senior marketing manager at Montague. “The Ifored iconic campaign will be trialled in a variety of markets to test the consumer sentiment before extending to other markets.”