ELGIN, MN - Reporting from the West Coast, where our season has decided to acknowledge winter just in time for spring, it’s hard to imagine that, a hop-skip down the coast, Chile is seeing perfect apple-growing climate. But, that is what Honeybear Brands announced as it welcomed its first ever organic Chilean Honeycrisp crop to the U.S.

“Ten years ago, we started our mission to bring the very best tasting Honeycrisp to national retailers year-round regardless of the season or the climate,” Don Roper, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said. “We found the perfect growing location in Chile, invested heavily in our production there, and we are now at a point with the scale of our production where we can provide a truly year-round, fresh, premium Honeycrisp. Adding organic production in our southern hemisphere operation is simply the next step in continually bringing the very best varieties and service to our partners and their customers.”

Thanks to months of near-perfect conditions, Honeybear said in a press release that its first Chilean organic Honeycrisp crop is coming off the tree with all of the classic hallmarks of a truly great Honeycrisp variety:

• Firm, crisp bite
• Juicy eating experience
• High color

The company is also bringing its largest ever crop of conventionally grown Honeycrisp to the U.S., with the first shipments landing Stateside the first week of May.

“With the significant increase in conventional production and our new organic production, we’re bringing more options to our retailers to help them cater to every customer preference,” Roper added. “Now it’s possible for our retail partners to confidently offer a year-round Honeycrisp program featuring the best tasting Honeycrisp from our domestic U.S. and Chilean orchards. Consumers can be confident that when they purchase organic or conventional grown Honeybear Chilean Honeycrisp they are holding a really exceptional piece of fruit that has been grown to the highest possible quality standards.”

By 2020, Roper said Honeybear expects as much as 30 percent of its Chilean orchard production capacity to be fully transitioned to organic production to meet demand.

Grown in partnership with local farmers who understand their microclimates, soil conditions, and the overall agronomic complexities of growing Honeycrisp, Honeybear said its conventional- and organic-grown Chilean Honeycrisp are produced to exacting standards. This includes the company’s own strict grower protocol, designed to protect the land, orchard habitat, and to produce the best-tasting fruit possible.

Among the first to grow Honeycrisp in Washington State and Chile, Honeybear Brands and its 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.

Honeybear Brands