Applewood Fresh Growers, BB #:348232 which can trace its roots back to 1935, and the parent affiliate company Applewood Orchards, is known as a leader in the emerging varieties of apples, with our goal to provide the most flavorful harvest of apples to retail customers and consumers.
Taste testers find Michigan apples to be some of the juiciest, crunchiest, flavorful apples in the world. That’s because Michigan’s glacial soil and Great Lake’s climate is ideal for apple orchards.
Applewood Fresh’s flavorful harvest is still in full swing during the winter months, it’s the perfect time for retailers to promote some emerging varieties from Michigan: EverCrisp, Kanzi and KIKU, along with New York grown SnapDragon and RubyFrost. These apples deliver premium flavor and meet the full spectrum of flavor profiles for consumers, from super-sweet to sweet/tart, and tart.
“Our Flavorful Harvest of Michigan grown Emerging varieties: Rave, SweeTango, Kiku, Kanzi, EverCrisp, along with the addition of being able to market New York grown SnapDragon and RubyFrost, are all valuable contributors to the emerging varieties of apples, that are focused on delivering outstanding flavor and quality to drive sales growth in the apple category.” said Brian Coates, Vice President Sales & Business Development. “These premium varieties offer a great opportunity to trade customers up to a higher retail to increase sales in the apple category.”
“While the 2021 Michigan crop overall is smaller, especially Honeycrisp, one of the top volume apples in the category, our orchards in SE Michigan produced a large crop. Helping to provide Applewood Fresh with a good volume of other core Michigan varieties including Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious. Retailers can continue to promote these legacy varieties to drive sales in the apple category and capture the healthy eating trend at this time of the year and promote throughout the spring months as well” said Scott Swindeman, President.
“We look forward to a larger fall crop in 2022. Typically, after a year with decreased production, the trees bounce back with a larger crop the next season. Time will tell how mother nature treats us during the bloom period, and throughout the summer.” Said Scott.
Logistics continues to be a challenge in the produce industry, and Apples are no exception. “Michigan provides a freight advantage for many Midwest customers, over Western fruit. We have plenty of bag fruit available to ship, and this year our size profile is larger, so we can also provide the larger tray pack fruit to our customers.” Said Brian.
Michigan grown fruit is good for sustainability efforts by customers. “Our location is considered locally grown for many Midwest Customers. We can provide less food miles and fresher product with our location to many customers in Midwest and southern regions of the country.” Said Brian
“Besides supporting retailers with many custom marketing programs to help drive sales at store level. We also support them through, continuing to help consumers with eating healthier meals and snacks at home, by teaming up with The Produce Moms to create fresh and creative apple content.” said Antonia Mascari, VP of Marketing. To drive consumer engagement and demand, the brands have released multiple new e-books, live Facebook and TV segments showcasing recipes and taste tests of the flavorful Michigan winter harvest, digital display ads, blogs, social posts, infographics, kid activities and lesson plans and much, much more. All these resources are available to Applewood Fresh retailers to help them capitalize on the winter harvest sales opportunities.
The Apple, Wine and Cheese Pairing Guide from Applewood Fresh was released recently and is all about their Michigan-grown apples: both proprietary and legacy varieties. Each apple has a featured pairing along with other cheese and wine options that would work well with each apple variety. Then, get kids excited about more nutritious snacks by turning apples into animals with the new e-book “How to Make Apple Animals.” These apple animals only take a few minutes each to assemble. They’re Pinterest-worthy but very little hassle. The resealable, travel-ready bags of delicious Michigan-grown apples are nature’s perfect snack. Consumers can grab a bag of Produce Moms’ BB #:366223 Applewood Fresh apples at the grocery store and start creating apple critters and all the other delicious new recipes!
For more information about Applewood Fresh, and to place orders, please contact the sales team at 616-239-2871.
About APPLEWOOD FRESH
Applewood Fresh Growers LLC, a grower, packer, shipper, and marketer of the finest Michigan apples, can trace its roots back to 1935, and the parent affiliate company Applewood Orchards, Inc.. With its third generation of family ownership, the company represents growers at primarily family-owned orchards across the state that inspire a mission to bring quality apples to consumers year-round. Applewood Fresh currently ships 17 apple varieties, made possible by its network of 50+ growers. For more information, please visit www.applewoodfresh.com.
