2021 Arctic apple harvest complete, includes first Arctic Fuji crop

Okanagan Specialty Fruit has completed the harvest of its 2021 Arctic apple crop. Arctic apple varieties, which stay orchard fresh longer, are developed and grown by OSF on their orchards located in Washington State. Arctic® Golden, Arctic® Granny, and Arctic® Fuji varieties were all harvested throughout the 1,350 acres of planted trees.

“This was a monumental harvest for OSF, and our largest ever,” states Don Westcott, Vice President of Operations, Sales and Marketing for OSF. “It also marks the first harvest of our Arctic® Fuji variety. The Arctic® Fuji’s picked this year will be used for product testing and customer sampling. There’s been lots of anticipation from our customers to add a red-skinned apple to our product portfolio and we are extremely excited to bring the Arctic® Fuji to market.”

Approximately 20,000 bins of Arctic® Golden and Arctic® Granny were harvested this season, or 17 million pounds. The Arctic® apple crop came in at estimate and is of excellent quality, even with the unprecedented heat experienced this past summer.

“Our harvest wouldn’t be possible without our great orchard staff,” explains Tony DiMaria, OSF’s Orchard Operations Manager. “Harvest is always a favorite time of year, as we finally get to watch a year of hard work come to fruition.”