Birth of Pink Lady®

‘Cripps Pink’, marketed as Pink Lady® is a result of a cross made in 1973 by the Western Australia Department of Agriculture, between the varieties ‘Lady Williams’ and ‘Golden Delicious’. The resulting seedling was planted and produced its first fruit in 1979.

The fruit was an exciting breakthrough and the variety was ‘promoted’ through the breeding program. Second and third generation trees were propagated and development, of what is now known as the Pink Lady® apple, began.
  
The next step was test plantings on commercial orchards – firstly in Australia and then in the US and Europe. These tests were so successful that protection of the intellectual property inherent in the variety was undertaken, beginning with a plant patent in the US and the Plant Breeders Rights in Europe (late 1990’s).

Commercial apple production began in Europe with plantings in southern France in 1995. By 1996 there were over 1 million trees planted in Australia and production exceeded 10 000 tons. Since then, production has increased rapidly, in all the apple-producing countries of the world. In 2008, the global trade in Pink Lady® apples was expected to exceed 400 000 tons.
 
The first commercial ‘Cripps Pink’ trees were planted in South Africa in 1995 and production of Pink Lady® apples were at 18 000 tons in 2009.

This is one lady that will continue to grow in the global market place.