American apple growers will be among the first in the world to get a taste of New Zealand's most popular new apple variety.
The delicious apple known as Dazzle was launched last year by Fruitcraft, a collaboration of three of New Zealand's largest apple growers, Mr Apple, Bostock NZ and Freshmax.
Fruitcraft signed a licence agreement with Chelan Fruit, a US co-operative with 325 grower members, farming 14,000 acres in Washington State. Gebbers Farms, one of the largest family owned and managed apple and cherry businesses in Washington State, has also signed the agreement.
Fruitcraft manager Steve Potbury says Chelan Fruit and Gebbers Farms have been granted the rights for production in the US and marketing rights for the fruit that they grow.
"They've committed to planting 3 million trees over 12 years and they will be marketing their fruit through their jointly owned company Chelan Fresh.