Lotte Mart announced on the 16th that it will ship about 500 tons of Fuji apples and over 200 tons of onions, stored in a controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, which were harvested last year.
The "Freshly Harvested Apples" that Lotte Mart is launching this time were harvested in October of last year, while the "Freshly Harvested Hard CA Stored Onions" were stored immediately after harvesting in June of last year. Through CA storage technology, they maintain the firmness and freshness similar to that of fresh fruit.
Starting from the 19th, Lotte Mart will sell the Freshly Harvested Apples (4-6 pieces, bag, domestically produced) for 17,990 won and the Freshly Harvested Hard CA Stored Onions (1.5 kg, mesh, domestically produced) for 5,990 won. The Freshly Harvested Apples were selectively chosen to have a sugar content of 13 Brix or higher through non-destructive sugar selection.
CA storage is a technology that dramatically extends the preservation period of agricultural products by regulating the temperature, humidity, and the composition ratio of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen in the air. It suppresses the aging of stored agricultural products and prevents the reproduction and growth of microorganisms and molds, thus maintaining the freshness of the harvest for an extended period.
Recently, due to abnormal weather conditions increasing the instability of the supply and demand for agricultural products, CA storage technology, which allows for long-term storage, has emerged as an alternative.
The reason Lotte Mart prepared CA-stored agricultural products is to provide customers with products that combine freshness and reasonable prices even at the end of storage. Typically, as agricultural products enter the end of their storage period, the quantity decreases and freshness declines, leading to price increases.
This situation also occurs with apples and onions during their end storage period in March and April. Moreover, the 2024 crop apples have overall quality lower than previous years due to damage from high temperatures during the harvest season, and the high temperatures during the harvest also weaken the storability of apples, making it challenging to maintain quality as the storage period lengthens.
Therefore, Lotte Mart has decided to early ship CA-stored apples, which are typically shipped around mid-April, about a month earlier. The onions, harvested from June of last year and stored until March of the following year, will introduce CA-stored onions starting in March as their quality deteriorates.
Lotte Mart is actively utilizing CA storage technology to provide fresh products to customers even during periods when it is difficult to maintain the freshness of agricultural products. The Lotte Fresh Quality Innovation Center has a CA storage facility capable of storing over 1,000 tons of agricultural products and applies CA storage technology to various items such as apples, onions, watermelons, and spinach, depending on the season.
Chae Hee-cheol, a product planner (MD) for the fruit team at Lotte Mart, said, "We prepared CA-stored apples and onions that maintain the freshness and flavor at the time of harvest to convey the top priority values of freshness and quality in fresh products," adding, "We plan to continue to showcase a wider variety of CA-stored agricultural products to provide fresh produce at reasonable prices, even as the instability of agricultural product supply and demand increases due to abnormal weather conditions."