BC biotech success story Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc. (OSF) is once more BC-owned, following its purchase this week by founder Neal Carter.
Bought by Intrexon Corp. in 2015, the year its genetically engineered non-browning apples were approved for commercial production in the US, OSF was sold to venture capital firm TS Biotechnology Holdings LLC in 2020.
Under the wings of its US owners, it established a 1,250-acre orchard in Othello, Washington, and built a processing facility in nearby Moses Lake. It debuted its Arctic-brand non-browning apple slices, now sold in 32 states and Puerto Rico, and won approval for sales in Canada. It launched Endless Orchard, an award-winning cider brand, in 2024.
“It’s exciting and humbling to regain ownership of OSF,” Carter says in a June 23 statement announcing the purchase. “We see the acquisition as a chance to plot a course that maximizes our experience and the genetic advances of recent years while opening opportunities for significant new investment and crop development partnerships.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Carter intends to transition the company to a blend of employee ownership with outside investment.
OSF operates a research lab in Saskatchewan, where it uses gene editing to introduce traits into apples, cherries, berries and grapes, and it expects to announce the first product from this work later this year.
Carter says the aim is to boost the nutritional and sustainability attributes of fresh produce.
He also sees the potential for gene editing to change the architecture of apple trees to facilitate orchard automation, reducing labour and production costs.
Many within the BC industry have resisted the introduction of genetically engineered apples, and to date there have been no commercial plantings of the company’s Arctic apples in BC.
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