ELGIN, MN - Made up of third and fourth generation farming families, Honeybear and its growers boast a strong commitment to caring for, growing, producing, and packing the best apples possible.

“With every new variety we’re trying to bring customer appeal for a variety that, wherever possible, is grown almost on the doorsteps of our retail partners. It’s about being fresh and fast,” said Vice President of Sales and Marketing Don Roper, according to a press release.

The company has developed a robust varietal development program that has evaluated hundreds of varieties over the past ten years, with a distillation process that includes attention to varietal detail, patience, and bit of luck in identifying strong candidates. Today, it has close to 100 varieties, many that won’t ever make it to market, in multiple stages of commercial development.

“Think of potential new varieties as really young kids,” Roper explained. “You don’t know who will become the shining star until they have had a chance to express themselves in multiple ways. For new varieties testing includes assessing the right microclimate and growing location, soil types, tree productivity, and yield, as well as disease resistance and so much more. Variety development is a labor of love cultivated over a long timeline with many pitfalls and even some disappointments along the way. Staying the course and really learning what a particular variety is telling you is paramount to the success of any variety.”

Recently, Honeybear’s development program has let to two exciting new varieties: RiverBelle, grown in the Midwest and a quick early season local favorite, and Pazazz, now grown in the U.S. and Canada and garnering wide North American appeal.

“We’re in our second year of the commercial introduction process for Pazazz,” says Roper. “We’ve worked closely with exclusive retail partners nationwide and ramped up production to meet key retail events this winter. We like how we are now positioned with Pazazz. It’s a national apple but we have been able to diversify production into local regions where many of our retailers are based. This allows us to offer the benefits of local production for some retail partners and that geographic diversification also helps us smooth out the various agronomic challenges that good old Mother Nature throws our way.”

Key components the company attribute to successfully bringing new varieties to market are meeting customer desires as well as retailers.

Honeybear noted that it gathers input from not only hundreds of customer focus groups but also retailers themselves, with its varietal development team working closely with store managers, buyers, and their customers.

The company is currently working to enable Pazazz to scale more quickly: The apple is being grown in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington State, New York State, Nova Scotia, and being tested with growing partners in the southern hemisphere.

Take a bite out of Honeybear Brands for yourself by swinging by booth #1249 while at PMA Fresh Summit on October 14-16.

Honeybear Brands