An Austrian supermarket is testing apples almost nobody sells anymore

Two apples that almost disappeared from shops are getting a commercial test in Austria. The Guardian reported on October 19, 2026, that Spar and the grower Frutura are trying the Ilzer Rosenapfel, a Styrian variety from about 1840, and Falchs Gulderling, a South Tirol apple from the 1870s. About 10 of Austria's roughly 2,000 apple types are the ones supermarkets usually stock. The seed-saving group Arche Noah helped pick varieties that might cope with commercial growing.

Markus Kaser, deputy chair of Spar Austria, said the test is whether the apples can succeed on taste, growth, disease, and shelf life, and whether the chain can then offer them across the region. An experimental orchard in Styria holds 2,150 trees. The first fruit was picked that week for sampling. It is headed to a trial supermarket in Vienna, and next month to regional daycare centres and schools.

Katrin Hohensinner-Häupl, co-managing director of Frutura, said first impressions were positive: the Gulderling large and deep red, the Ilzer Rosenapfel smaller and paler, with a taste she compared to apples from childhood. This is a pilot. It is not a nationwide change of what the shops sell.