Elgin, Minn. – Devoted Honeycrisp lovers have a reason to rejoice this May as a fresh-picked crop becomes available at retailers nationwide. Honeybear Brands, the leading Honeycrisp importer from the southern hemisphere, announced the first shipments of the company’s 2020 Chilean Honeycrisp are leaving their orchards. This availability will provide a great option for retailers and consumers for a healthy new crop with strong shelf life driving sell through of great product at retail.
“Predictably, domestic Honeycrisp begin losing flavor this time of year and consumers start turning to other snacking options,” says Don Roper, vice president sales and marketing, Honeybear Brands. “We invested heavily in our Chilean orchards more than two decades ago, and we’ve been at work ever since growing and fine-tuning quality so we can bring our nationwide retail partners something they can’t find anywhere else at this time of year.”
Organic Availability
Organic consumers have waited even longer for an organic Honeycrisp. Organic apples have a shorter holding period than conventional because the same climate-controlled tools and methods are not available for organics, shortening the lifespan of the crop.
“Several years ago, we saw the need for increased fresh organic Honeycrisp during the “off season” and started transitioning much of our southern hemisphere orchards. Over the next two years, our transition will be complete, and we will have more than half of our production organic” continues Roper.
Highest Production and Quality
The Honeybear 2020 crop is both the largest production volume and the highest quality fruit to ever come out of the company’s southern hemisphere orchards, with an expected 500,000 cases. Three key factors contributed to this boost:
- The fruit is grown in the Araucania region of Southern Chile, which is known for their exceptional growing conditions with just the right balance of warm days, cooler nights and perfect rainfall giving the crop the classic traits of the perfect Honeycrisp: high color, firm texture and juicy, crisp bite.
- The precision work of the company’s team on the ground in growing, picking and packing premium quality apples is second to none.
- Dedicated supply chain model moving best conditioned Honeycrisp crop to key global Northern hemisphere markets in the most efficient manner.
About Honeybear Brands
Honeybear is a leading grower and developer of premium apple varieties. Family owned and operated for more than forty years, Honeybear still employs the same hands-on, personal attention to each and every apple variety produced while holding to responsible sustainability practices. As a leading vertically integrated, dual hemisphere grower, packer, shipper, Honeybear offers supply of premium apples and pears on a year-round basis. Honeybear Brands is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wescott Agri Products. For more information about Honeybear, visit www.honeybearbrands.com and follow us on Facebook.
Honeybear® is a trademark of Wescott Agri Products.
