Happy Apple Day in Switzerland!

September 18, 2015, 3 Comments

Today is a special day in Switzerland. It’s National Apple Day! This has been celebrated on 18 September for the past two decades or so, and it’s not unusual to find free apples being given out today in stations and supermarkets across the country.

All because the humble apple is the Swiss national fruit.

You might think that has something to do with William Tell. After all, he was the man who gave the apple a starring role in Swiss history (or at least Swiss myths, given that he never actually existed) by shooting it clean off his son’s head.

But it is actually simply a matter of statistics: the apple is the number one fruit in Switzerland. To celebrate National Apple Day, here are seven fascinating facts about the favourite Swiss fruit:

• Every year the average Swiss person eats 15.8kg of apples, which equates to roughly 100 apples, or about two a week.
• That’s far more than the average chocolate consumption (about 12kg per head) and much more than the No2 fruit, bananas at 9.3kg.
• The apple harvest in Switzerland was 142,000 tonnes in 2014, or more than all the other Swiss fruit combined.
• Most Swiss apples stay in Switzerland, with only 1881 tonnes being exported.
• Two thirds of all Swiss apples are grown in just three cantons: Thurgau, Valais and Vaud.
• The top three varieties are Gala, Golden Delicious and Braeburn, which together account for half the apple crop.
• In Vaud there is a town called Apples, population 1,338 people, number of apples unknown.

If an apple a day really does keep the doctor away, then Swiss doctors are going to have a very quiet day today.

Happy munching everyone!