The Envy apple has been named America’s favorite apple in the U.S. Apple Association’s “Apple Madness” consumer competition. A total of 32 apple varieties vied for the top spot in the competition which ran throughout March and called on apple fans across the U.S. to pick their favorite.
A few weeks in and the candidates were whittled down to the final four with Envy among them before it was named the overall winner.
The U.S. Apple Association’s Korenna Wilson, director of consumer health, says the competition started on February 22 and ran for five-weeks with five-rounds.
“We love the opportunity to merge March’s National Nutrition Month and bracket fever with this campaign,” Korenna says. “It was fun to see apple fans’ passion for their favorite varieties play out on social media. Congrats to Envy!”
Envy was born using natural plant-breeding methods, crossing Braeburn with Royal Gala apples by Plant and Food Research in New Zealand. It was first planted in Washington state in 2009 in partnership with T&G Global, which owns the trademark for Envy, and its marketing partner Oppy.
T&G Global’s North American president Joe Barsi is thrilled Envy was chosen by so many in the U.S. as their favorite apple.
“Envy is selling extremely well in the U.S. but also other key markets for us such as Thailand, China and Vietnam. We’re intending to increase global production significantly over the next eight years to keep up with the growing demand for this premium apple but being chosen as the number one apple in the USA is truly awesome for the consumers who get to enjoy it and our passionate growers.”
David Nelley, vice president of categories at Oppy, says winning the Apple Madness competition puts an exclamation point on what has been another amazing, high-demand season for Washington-grown Envy. “We are incredibly excited that consumers picked Envy over several worthy opponents, bestowing the coveted number one spot and proving Envy’s truly exceptional widespread appeal.”
T&G executive general manager, pipfruit, Darren Drury says the season for U.S-grown Envy has now ended but North Americans can look forward to New Zealand-grown fruit which is currently being harvested for export and domestic consumption.
In 2014 the fruit surpassed 100,000 cartons for production in the USA and T&G now anticipates to harvest more than two million cartons by 2020.
Envy apples are also grown under license to T&G in New Zealand, Chile, the UK, France, Italy and South Korea.
Source: T&G Global / Oppy
