KIKU® holds virtual exhibition

The KIKU^® News Talk “fair”, held right after Interpoma, on November 21, was an invitation-only affair, with visits planned and guided directly by the managers of Kiku Variety Management and Braun Nurseries. The virtual fair was initially scheduled to conclude on December 23, but due to popular demand, it was extended to February 2021, when the event will turn into a free website.

KIKU^® Apple is South Tyrolean firm with the worldwide protected brand of a Fuji cultivar, whose plants are grown in more than 30 countries and its fruits are available in over 50 markets. Jürgen Braun, CEO of KIKU^® Apple, said: “Due to the pandemic, some international fairs were skipped, such as Fruit Attraction, which would have been our third edition, and Interpoma, while Fruit Logistica has been postponed from February to May 2021. This empty period is too long for us, as we are used to meeting our partners and developing relationships. In addition, 2020 is a special year for KIKU^®, because it marks our 30th anniversary and we wanted to celebrate it with all the people and companies of all part of the world who believed in us. This is why we decided to create our own digital event, the “KIKU News Talk”, with a collective stand, which hosts both companies of the Braun family, namely Braun Nurseries and KIKU^® Variety Management.

“The event offers our numerous partners (over 100!) the opportunity to take a walk and chat together, visiting apple orchards and learning more about our different club apples and our vision of fruit growing. For us, the primary objective of a fair is to network, take care of human relationships and make friends. For this we need to do the digital fair independently, with our own style. We want to be the driver of the event. In recent weeks we have managed 2-3 visits a day, for a total expected by Christmas of about 50 guided tours.”

Of the club apples displayed (KIKU^®, Crimson Snow^®, Red Moon^®, ISAAQ^® and Swing^®), the last three cultivars – also the most recently introduced – have scab resistance and are also available for organic production.

The stand is very exhaustive and the various themes developed allow deeper discovery of topics according to the specific interests of the visitor. Braun said: “At the end of each meeting we send our visitor as a gift a box of KIKU^® Apple Gin, the innovative gin based on KIKU^® apples produced by Roner on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of KIKU^® Apples. We try to maintain the style, warmth and courtesy that we usually have in physical fairs, to which we hope to be able to return as soon as possible.”