Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) announced [October 3] that it has successfully completed the first commercial harvest of its non-browning Arctic® Golden apple variety. The healthy fruit from this inaugural harvest will be sold as fresh sliced apples in test markets across North America in early 2017.
“We are pleased to see over 20 years of hard work and effort coming to fruition with this first commercial harvest of our Arctic®Golden variety,” said Neal Carter, founder and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits. “With growing industry and consumer interest in the advantages our solution brings, we eagerly anticipate seeing our freshly sliced apples in grocery stores, supermarkets, and kitchens across the United States and Canada.”
The Company also announced the completion of its 70,000 tree planting goal for 2016 including both Arctic® Golden and Arctic® Granny varieties, and currently has 300,000 and 500,000 trees under contract in North America for planting in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
OSF’s Arctic® Golden and Arctic® Granny varieties have been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada (HC). OSF also recently received deregulation of the Arctic® Fuji variety in the U.S. from USDA.
For more on its two decade journey to reach this first commercial harvest [watch] OSF’s “It’s Just the Beginning” video [below]:
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Watch video on YouTube: It’s just the beginning – The Arctic Advantage™
Read the press release here: First Ever Commercial Harvest of Okanagan Specialty Fruits’ Arctic® Golden Apples Completed
