The World of Apples

Growing regions

Santa Catarina

Brazil's modern apple growing began at Fraiburgo in 1962; in 2025 São Joaquim alone picked 307,200 tonnes

How apples came

Apples grew in these highlands long before they were an industry. Orchards around São Joaquim are recorded from 1904, and in the 1920s Paulo Bathke, a German-born settler, opened the district’s first apple nursery, which stocked trees for farmhouse gardens. A Ministry of Agriculture report of 1913 found fruit trees growing half wild there, bearing fruit “equal in flavour, aroma and size to the best in the world” (translated)1.

Modern apple growing began at Fraiburgo, in the state’s Meio-Oeste, in 19622. The sawmill owners René and Arnoldo Frey, whose family came from Alsace, could see the araucaria forest running out; in 1958 René visited the Evrard and Mahler families’ vineyards and orchards in Algeria and invited them to Brazil, and on 27 March 1962 the three families founded the Sociedade Agrícola Fraiburgo (Safra), each holding 33%2,3. The Freys put up a thousand hectares, the French-Algerians the capital2. The agronomist Roger Biau, Safra’s technical director from July 1963, ran the experimental orchard2,3; its first 100,000 young trees came from Europe by ship, in cold store, and by 1967 the apple had adapted better than any other fruit there, so young trees went on sale to growers in four states4.

Public money followed. A federal law of 1966 let investors set up to half their income tax against planting trees, fruit trees included, and was widely used for apple orchards until 1975; the state’s temperate-fruit programme, Profit, came with a law of 19681,2,5. Yields stayed at two to four tonnes a hectare until research led in 1975 by the Israeli agronomist Amnon Erez traced the falling flowers to a shortage of winter chill and prescribed bees and sprays to break dormancy2. That year Safra’s specialists chose three varieties, Gala and Fuji among them, for orchards above 1,000 m, and from 1976 Safra planted on a commercial scale3. By 1990 Fraiburgo had about 6,000 ha of apples, and its growers had cleared more than 1,000 ha of araucaria forest in 1980–83 alone2.

São Joaquim took a different path. The state opened a fruit-research unit there in 1969, now Epagri’s experiment station, and under an agreement with Japan the agronomist Kenshi Ushirozawa worked there from 1971 to 19771. He found that Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, the main varieties of the early 1970s, turned mealy at about 1,000 m, and advised earlier varieties such as Gala; from the 1990s new orchards were planted with Gala and Fuji2. From 1974 the Cotia agricultural co-operative settled Japanese families around São Joaquim to grow apples. “Nobody had dealt with apples before arriving in São Joaquim,” one settler, Shoichi Yuri, recalled (translated); his colony planted Fuji, Gala and Mutsu, among others, and waited eight years for the trees to pay1. A federal law of 2019 named São Joaquim the national apple capital9, and on 3 August 2021 its Fuji was registered as a designation of origin8.

How they’re grown

“Altitude corrected the effects of latitude,” the French nurseryman Georges Delbard said of Fraiburgo in 1967 (translated)2. Most of the São Joaquim region lies above 1,000 m7, and its weather station stands at 1,400 m10. The Fuji designation was drawn round land above 1,100 m, where winters bring at least 700 hours below 7.2 °C, in São Joaquim, Bom Jardim da Serra, Urupema, Urubici and Painel8. In 2020 São Joaquim logged 1,446 hours of chill against a mean of 1,226, Fraiburgo 1,031 against 74111. Even so, Epagri’s breeders say that Gala and Fuji, which give about 95% of Brazil’s apples, lack winter cold in most districts12; sprays of mineral oil and hydrogen cyanamide can break their dormancy7.

The two districts farm differently. Fraiburgo is warmer, less steep and suited to machines, and large companies run its orchards, mostly of Gala. São Joaquim is colder, with a wider swing between day and night that brings sugar and colour, on steep, stony soils; small farmers there grow apples among other crops with family labour and sell through co-operatives, though in the 2000s companies grew most of its fruit, and Fuji predominates3,6. The 2017 census counted 1,310 apple growers in São Joaquim alone7, and the rugged ground keeps the work largely manual8. About 2,700 growers worked the state’s orchards in 2024/25, from family farms to companies with automated packing lines14.

Epagri, formed in 1991 from the state’s extension service and its research company, works on apples at Caçador and São Joaquim1,5. In more than 50 years of breeding it has released 21 cultivars, among them Princesa (1986) and Epagri 408-Condessa (1998), which ripen between Christmas and mid-January12. The weather sets the margin: in 2023/24 an El Niño brought heavy rain and hail, smaller fruit and more disease14. Orchards need at least three workers a hectare, directly and indirectly11, and over two decades fewer people have been willing to do the work5.

What’s picked

Brazil harvested 1,146,297 tonnes of apples in 2025 on IBGE’s figures, and Santa Catarina 537,548 tonnes from 16,665 ha; Rio Grande do Sul grew more, 567,406 tonnes, though Santa Catarina had led in 2023. São Joaquim alone picked 307,200 tonnes from 9,600 ha, more than a quarter of the national crop, and with Bom Jardim da Serra, Urubici, Urupema and Painel it grew about 78% of the state’s apples. Fraiburgo picked 51,328 tonnes, and Vacaria, across the state line in Rio Grande do Sul, 233,52013. In 2006/07 Fraiburgo had grown 206,212 tonnes, a third of the state’s crop6. Of the state’s apple area, 59.8% is Fuji, 38.4% Gala and 1.8% early varieties14.

Picking runs from December to May: early varieties from Christmas to mid-January12, Gala from January to March, and Fuji from March to May, busiest in April11. Around São Joaquim most of the crop comes in between February and April1. The fruit is sold mainly at home, fresh or to the juice industry, and apples kept in cold and controlled-atmosphere stores are sold through the second half of the year11,14. Brazil became self-sufficient in 1998, when its apple exports first exceeded imports5, but in 2025, its exports cut by poor harvests, it imported 213,628 tonnes of fresh apples, mostly from Chile, Italy and Argentina, and exported 13,79214.

On the table

São Joaquim’s agricultural show of 1952 featured apples; it became the Festa Municipal da Maçã in 1956 and the Festa Nacional da Maçã in 1978, held at the end of April or early in May, and reached its 21st edition in 20191. Fraiburgo held the first Festa Estadual da Maçã in 19862. Most apples are eaten fresh or pressed for juice14; in Painel visitors eat them flambéed, cooked in wine or as they come1.

In Portuguese the apple is maçã, from Latin matiana, and an orchard is a pomar15,16. The imported Red Delicious on which Brazil relied until the 1980s was known as the maçã argentina5. The sweet, translucent patches that the cold weeks before harvest bring out in large, late-picked Fuji are called pingo de mel, honey drop1,8.

Notes

  • In the 1960s the apple was Brazil’s second agricultural import after wheat3.
  • Imported apples filled 73.6% of Brazil’s consumption in 1980 and about 30% in 19863.
  • A saying of Ushirozawa’s is remembered in São Joaquim: stones can be gathered and soil levelled, “but the climate we cannot move” (translated)1.
  • After 1975, an extension agronomist recalled, yields rose from two to four tonnes a hectare to 28 or 302.

Where the sources disagree

  • 1962 or 1963. Klanovicz and Pereira and colleagues date Safra to 19622,3; Fraiburgo’s own history starts the experimental field in 19634.
  • Profit. Created by a state law of 19681,5, or in 19703, the year of the agreement with Japan1.
  • Self-sufficiency. A magazine claimed it in June 19832; Epagri/Cepa dates it to 19985.
  • The Serra overtaking Fraiburgo. In the 1980s and 1990s, say Dortzbach and colleagues7; but the Fraiburgo region still grew slightly more in 2006/07, 48.15% of the state’s crop against 45.75%6.
  • Which state leads. On IBGE’s figures Santa Catarina in 2023, Rio Grande do Sul in 2024 and 202513; a state release of October 2025 still gave Santa Catarina about 51%5.
  • Arithmetic. “Nearly half”, “more than a quarter” and “about 78%”, and São Joaquim’s place as Brazil’s largest apple municipality, are my calculations from IBGE’s table13.
  • Season. December to May follows Epagri’s calendars11,12; in 2020/21 the last fruit was picked in June11.
  • Fuji’s arrival. Glauco Olinger, then head of the state’s agriculture department, credits Ushirozawa with bringing Fuji to Brazil1; no documentary source dates its introduction.
Santa Catarina
Where Santa Catarina is.

Sources

  1. Maçã Fuji da Região de São Joaquim: história e cultura, Paola Beatriz May Rebollar and Christina Baumgarten, Epagri, 2024. Supports: the first reports of orchards around São Joaquim in 1904; Paulo Bathke's buds carried from Germany in potatoes (his granddaughter's account) and his nursery of the 1920s; the Ministry of Agriculture report of 1913 ('produzindo frutos que equivalem, em sabor, aroma e tamanho aos melhores do mundo'); the 1952 show, the Festa Municipal da Maçã of 1956 and the Festa Nacional da Maçã from 1978, its 21st edition in 2019, held at the end of April or early May; Profit by state law 4263 of 1968; the research unit of 1969, now Epagri's experiment station; Kenshi Ushirozawa in Santa Catarina from 1971 to 1977; the Cotia colony from 1974; Shoichi Yuri's account (no settler had handled apples; Fuji, Gala and Mutsu among the varieties; eight years to a return; hail at the first harvest); Cotia's grading shed, cold stores and exports, its insolvency and the São Joaquim co-operative; Cooperserra (1977) and its prices; Epagri formed from Acaresc and Empasc; the harvest concentrated from February to April; pingo de mel; apples flambéed, in wine or plain in Painel; the hope for whole juices; Ushirozawa's saying on stones, soil and climate.
  2. Corrigir os erros da natureza: húbris, conhecimento agronômico e produção de maçãs no sul do Brasil, Jó Klanovicz, Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência 5(1), pp. 131–145, 2012. Supports: technical apple growing begun in 1962 at Fraiburgo by the Mahler/Evrard group and the Frey family ('de origem alemã'); the Freys' thousand hectares and the French-Algerians' capital; Henri Evrard, Roland Mayer and Roger Biau; Delbard's visit of 1966 and his saying of 1967, 'a altitude [de Fraiburgo] corrigia os efeitos da latitude'; the federal law 5.106 of 2 September 1966 and its use for apple orchards in 1967–1975; yields of two to four tonnes a hectare; Amnon Erez's research of 1975, the chilling shortage, bees and dormancy-breaking chemicals; Bleicher's '28, trinta toneladas'; Red and Golden Delicious going mealy at about 1,000 m, Ushirozawa's advice and the change to Gala and Fuji in the 1990s; about 6,000 ha in production by 1990; more than 1,000 ha of araucaria forest cleared in 1980–83; consumption of 0.6 kg a head in 1960 and 1.45 kg in 1970; Veja's claim of self-sufficiency in June 1983; the first Festa Estadual da Maçã at Fraiburgo in 1986.
  3. Evolução da produção de maçã em Santa Catarina: novas estratégias em busca de competitividade, Laércio Barbosa Pereira, Flávio José Simioni and Sílvio Antonio Ferraz Cário, I Encontro de Economia Catarinense (APEC), 2007. Supports: the Frey family 'originária da Alsácia'; René Frey's visit to the Evrard-Mahler group in Algeria in 1958 and his invitation; Safra founded on 27 March 1962, each family with 33%, at first for grapes and wine; Biau's technical direction from July 1963; the 1975 conclusion naming three varieties, Gala and Fuji among them, on EM7 and MM106 above 1,000 m; commercial planting from 1976; the apple as the second agricultural import after wheat in the 1960s; imports at 73.6% of consumption in 1980 and about 30% in 1986; the colder São Joaquim district with its wider difference between day and night.
  4. Histórico da Maçã, Município de Fraiburgo. Supports: the experimental field of 1963; the first 100,000 young trees from Europe by ship, kept about five months in cold stores under Roger Biau; the apple judged best adapted in 1967 and young trees sold to growers in Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul.
  5. Nos 50 anos da Epagri, pesquisa é destaque ao transformar o Brasil de importador a exportador de maçã, Governo de Santa Catarina, Secom, 6 October 2025. Supports: imported Red Delicious, known as 'maçã argentina', until the 1980s; Profit created in 1968 (state law 4.263); Empasc founded in 1975 and merged into Epagri in 1991; apple research at Caçador and São Joaquim; more than 500 imported varieties tested; budbreak technology without which Brazil could not grow more than a million tonnes; self-sufficiency in 1998, when exports first exceeded imports (Epagri/Cepa); fewer and dearer orchard workers over two decades.
  6. Evolução da produção de maçã em Santa Catarina: novas estratégias em busca de maior competitividade, Laércio Barbosa Pereira, Flávio José Simioni and Sílvio Antonio Ferraz Cario, Ensaios FEE 31(1), pp. 209–234, August 2010. Supports: Fraiburgo's 206,212 t (34.44% of the state) and the Fraiburgo region's 48.15% against the São Joaquim region's 45.75% in 2006/07; Fraiburgo warmer, less steep and mechanised, with large companies and their own grading and storage, Gala the main variety; São Joaquim with small diversified farms, family labour and co-operatives, steep stony soils, Fuji predominant.
  7. Delimitação geográfica de área: o caso de indicação geográfica da maçã Fuji da Região Serrana de São Joaquim, SC, Denilson Dortzbach et al., DRd – Desenvolvimento Regional em Debate 12, pp. 110–126, 1 April 2022. Supports: the region mostly above 1,000 m; production begun in the 1970s and expanding in the 1980s and 1990s to overtake the Fraiburgo region; the 2017 census's 1,310 apple growers in São Joaquim and 1,844 in the five municipalities; the average orchard of 2.82 ha in São Joaquim (Trabaquini et al., 2019); mineral oil and hydrogen cyanamide to break dormancy; 4,928 km², 5.15% of the state.
  8. Ficha técnica de registro de indicação geográfica: Região de São Joaquim (BR412020000010-4), Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI). Supports: the designation of origin for Fuji granted on 3 August 2021; 4,928 km² covering São Joaquim, Bom Jardim da Serra, Urupema, Urubici and Painel; the altitude of 1,100 m and at least 700 hours below 7.2 °C; rugged, stony ground and largely manual work; the people of Japanese origin and their know-how; pingo de mel favoured by the cold weeks before harvest.
  9. Lei nº 13.790, de 3 de janeiro de 2019, Presidência da República, Brazil, 3 January 2019. Supports: São Joaquim given the title of Capital Nacional da Maçã.
  10. Catálogo de Estações Automáticas, Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET). Supports: station A815, São Joaquim: −28.275556, −49.934722, 1,400.06 m.
  11. Análise da evolução da produção de maçã em Santa Catarina no período de 2014 a 2021, Rebeca Poluceno Souza, Alberto Fontanella Brighenti and Rogério Goulart Junior, Agropecuária Catarinense 37(3), Epagri, 29 October 2024. Supports: chill hours in 2020/21 (São Joaquim 1,446 against a mean of 1,226; Fraiburgo 1,031 against 741); at least three workers a hectare and more than 100,000 jobs; the 2020/21 harvest from December to June, peaking in March (34.1%); early apples from December to February; Gala from January to March; Fuji from March to May with 43.5% in April; the Joaçaba microregion led by Fraiburgo; fruit stored in cold stores and sold in the second half of the year.
  12. Cultivares de macieira desenvolvidos pela Epagri, Frederico Denardi et al., Boletim Técnico, Epagri, 2023. Supports: about 95% of Brazil's apples from Gala and Fuji, both short of winter chill in most districts; Gala's short harvest and its susceptibility to glomerella leaf spot; more than 50 years of breeding and 21 cultivars; Princesa introduced in 1986; Epagri 408-Condessa from a cross of Gala and Malus 41 made at Caçador in 1987, released in 1998; early cultivars ripening from Christmas to mid-January; late cultivars picked from mid-April into May.
  13. Produção Agrícola Municipal, tabela 1613: maçã, quantidade produzida e área colhida, 2023–2025, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), SIDRA. Supports: Brazil 1,146,297 t in 2025; Santa Catarina 537,548 t from 16,665 ha in 2025 and 593,140 t in 2023; Rio Grande do Sul 567,406 t in 2025 and 553,768 t in 2023; São Joaquim 307,200 t from 9,600 ha; Bom Jardim da Serra 50,750 t, Urubici 25,200 t, Urupema 23,265 t, Painel 13,690 t; Fraiburgo 51,328 t from 1,604 ha; Vacaria 233,520 t.
  14. Síntese Anual da Agricultura de Santa Catarina 2025, Epagri/Cepa, 2026. Supports: about 2,700 growers in 2024/25, from family farms and co-operatives to large companies with automated grading and packing; the Serrana mesoregion's 85.3% and the Joaçaba microregion's 14.4%; 59.8% of the apple area Fuji, 38.4% Gala and 1.8% early varieties; fruit sold mainly on the home market, fresh or to the juice industry; controlled-atmosphere storage and sales through the year; the El Niño of 2023/24 with rain, hail, smaller fruit and more disease; Brazil's 2025 exports of 13,792 t and imports of 213,628 t, mostly from Chile, Italy and Argentina.
  15. maçã, Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, Editora Melhoramentos. Supports: maçã, the edible fruit of the macieira, from Latin matiana; maçã argentina, a large red variety of Argentine origin with aromatic, sweet, mealy flesh.
  16. pomar, Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, Editora Melhoramentos. Supports: pomar, ground where fruit trees are grown, from Latin pomarium.