Honeybear's Largest Chilean Honeycrisp Crop Returns 

Elgin, Minnesota – A record shipment of Chilean Honeycrisp from Honeybear Brands’ southern hemisphere orchards arrives at major retail stores across the country this week. The 2017 Chilean Honeycrisp is the largest in Honeybear’s ten year program and brings just picked freshness, color and taste to retail partners at a time when domestic Honeycrisp inventory, harvested last fall, is in low supply and flavor waning from months of cold storage. 

The volume increase in Chilean Honeycrisp is due in part to several factors: the natural maturation of Honeybear’s Chilean orchards, excellent growing conditions and the company working with exceptional local growing partners who understand the many nuances of growing and optimizing premium apple production in their local micro climates.

“We made a commitment to our retail partners a long time ago to bring them premium varieties with a just picked freshness wherever and whenever they need it,” says Don Roper, vice president, sales and marketing, Honeybear Brands.

“Clearly our just harvested Southern Hemisphere crop provides a much improved flavor profile for customers versus domestically-grown Honeycrisp at this time of year. Honeycrisp grown in the United States was harvested eight months ago and has lost its distinctive crispness as well as the delicate balance of sweet and tart flavors that really sets the apple apart from all others. Honeybear’s Chilean Honeycrisp crop capitalizes on the fresh orchard picked eating experience consumers have now come to enjoy and crave.”

Roper added that the Chilean Honeycrisp crop is a big opportunity for Honeybear’s national retail partners too, each of which gets to provide an exceptional, differentiated product as well as Honeybear’s programming to aggressively drive new and increased sales at this traditionally slower time of year for apple sales.

Leading retailers featuring the Honeybear Chilean Honeycrisp include Hy-Vee, Publix, Loblaws, United Supermarkets, Cub Foods, SuperValu, Central Market, Coborns and Sam’s Club in more than 100 markets across the country

Honeybear Brands and parent Wescott Agri Products were granted exclusive production and commercialization rights for the Chilean Honeycrisp by the University of Minnesota, developer and owner of the original variety. The company was one of the first to grow Honeycrisp in Washington state and Chile, and is widely recognized as the premier Honeycrisp label in the United States.
For more information visit www.honeybearbrands.com or contact Honeybear at 952-746-1315

About the Honeycrisp Variety

The well-loved Honeycrisp variety was first designated in 1960, patented in 1988 and made available to customers in 1991. In recent years, thanks to its unique blend of crunch, crisp flesh and a mixed sweet/tart flavor profile, the Honeycrisp variety has become an in-demand favorite of consumers, cooks, apple-lovers and the retailers that sell it. A challenging variety to grow, Honeycrisp requires the right microclimate to maximize production, yield quality and flavor.

About Honeybear Brands (www.honeybearbrands.com)

Honeybear Marketing is the marketing arm for, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wescott Agri Products. Honeybear is a leading grower and developer of premium apple varieties. The company started as Wescott Agri Products, a family run apple orchard in the early 1970s. From that early start several generations ago, today Honeybear still employs the same hands-on, personal attention to each and every apple variety produced through the Honeybear Apple Varietal Development Program. Honeybear is the leading provider of Honeycrisp apples in the Northwest region and offers complete domestic and global supply integration from varietal development to growing, packing, shipping and retailer support.

Source: Honeybear Marketing