Gala predicted to overtake Red Delicious as America's top apple

The U.S. Apple Association expects to see America's apple growers produce about 52.4 million Gala apples this year, a year-to-year rise of 5.9 percent.  Consumers are said to prefer the apple's "taste, texture and sweetness." Gala for the first time will not be bested by the Red Delicious variety, predicted to drop 10.7 percent to land in second place this year.  Next in line will likely be the Granny Smith, Fuji and Honeycrisp varieties, ranking third, fourth and fifth.