Ever since orchardist Maria Ann Smith developed the now famous Granny Smith by chance in the 1800s, Australian growers have been on a quest to cultivate the perfect apple.
Valued at more than half a billion dollars annually, Australia's apple industry is big business.
Apple and Pear Australia Limited (APAL) chief executive Phil Turnbull said 300,000 tonnes of apples were grown each year across several different regions.
"There's probably six or seven staples and then there's quite a large amount of smaller new varieties coming," he said.
"You'd be surprised how passionate consumers are about their favourite apple.
"What our industry has shown is that they try to be innovative and bring new products to market."
Rowan Little, from grower Montague in Melbourne, said its new kid on the block, the red-fleshed Kissabel apple, was sweeter than a Granny Smith but shared a similar level of acidity.
"Every apple is unique, a bit like a snowflake," he said.
"So you cut it through the middle and it's got different hues of red and pink, and with the white flesh."
Ten years in the making, the plant material comes from France, where an old crabapple was crossed with a traditional eating apple.
"We think that the crabapple came from probably Kazakhstan, then they crossed it with a couple of varieties," Mr Little said.
Mr Little said there had been a lot of failures in the creation process with no genetic modification processes used.
"It's all just standard crossing, which means you take the pollen of one apple … and you pollinate the flowers on a different tree, and you do that in a very manual way using bees," he said.
"Then you harvest the seeds from those crosses and that's the new variety.
"We're up to the fourth generation of crosses to get that fruit that we've got to sell."
Shelf ready
Mr Little said while the Kissabel wasn't currently available to buy from the local supermarket or greengrocer, the apples would be available at a small number of select stores.
And while they would not be cheap at first, price and availability would improve over time.
"The challenge with apples is that the first year your yield is so low off a young tree," he said.
"We think ultimately that it's going to retail for about $6 a kilo in time."
Phil Turnbull said despite the loyalty to their favourite varieties, consumers were always looking for something different and new apples would be well received.
"The Kissabel is a very attractive piece of fruit," he said.
"Consumers buy with their eyes and then repeat purchase happens because they have a good taste and texture experience."
He said that over the past five years, apples have steadily grown in both volume and value, but bananas were still the most popular in Australian fruit bowls.
"We're always aiming for them but no, they [bananas] are still number one. I think we're not far away from them [and] it does vary from year to year," he said.
"Between ourselves and citrus, and obviously there are new entrants that are becoming more popular [such as] berries and avocados.
"It's a competitive space."
He said this season would have ample production, despite floods and hail in some regions.
Healthy competition
Rowan Little said the very competitive market for apples was better for consumers because it bred competition.
He says the Kissabel apple is new, but it's not a new variety.
"Kissabel is actually the name that we've given to the apples that come from certain trees," he said.
"The tree is actually the variety and the Kissabel is a product of that variety.
He said the apples were being commercially grown in Victoria and South Australia, with test sites all over Australia.
