diff --git a/apple/internal/resource_actions/plist.bzl b/apple/internal/resource_actions/plist.bzl
index 1f8158bfc2..ebca1f0c10 100644
--- a/apple/internal/resource_actions/plist.bzl
+++ b/apple/internal/resource_actions/plist.bzl
@@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ def merge_root_infoplists(
     # target name in the BUILD file.
     substitutions["TARGET_NAME"] = product_name
 
+    # The generated Info.plists from Xcode's project templates use
+    # DEVELOPMENT_LANGUAGE as the default variable substitution for
+    # CFBundleDevelopmentRegion. We substitute this to `en` to support
+    # Info.plists out of the box coming from Xcode.
+    substitutions["DEVELOPMENT_LANGUAGE"] = "en"
+
     if include_executable_name:
         substitutions["EXECUTABLE_NAME"] = product_name
         forced_plists.append(struct(CFBundleExecutable = product_name))