Can new apricot varieties spark renewed interest from consumers and growers?

The fresh apricot market has been struggling in recent years, due to the challenges of packing and shipping the soft, fragile fruit that develops its best flavor when tree-ripened. In Washington alone, bearing acreage is down almost 20 percent since 2007.

Could the solution be new genetics?

Brandt’s Fruit Trees plans to release a new program of about a dozen apricot cultivars with great flavors and good fruit size from breeding programs in France and Canada — including orange-skinned, red-skinned and white-fleshed varieties — that it hopes will be a good fit for Northwest growers.

- Read more of this Good Fruit Grower article.