Los Angeles-based Pacific Trellis Fruit is looking forward to increased cherry imports this season.
“With increased volumes of cherries arriving in the U.S. from Chile and Argentina, we are looking forward to increased opportunities to work with our customers in promoting cherries well into March,” Marcial Hernandez, director of imported fruit, said in a news release.
The first fruit to arrive via vessels should be available the third week of December, just in time for New Year’s ads, he said. Pacific Trellis Fruit is sourcing cherries from both Chile and Argentina, providing random-weight bags and fixed-weight 1-pound or 2-pound clamshells under the Dulcinea brand, according to the release.
Fruit can be flown into Miami along with vessel arrivals at East Coast and West Coast ports, the release said. Much of the fruit is brought to the U.S. in bulk shipments of 5 kg boxes and repacked using a wet-line to provide additional quality control. Fully staffed quality control teams manage both inbound and outbound product from the shipping point to the customer, the release said.
Dan Carapella Jr., director of special projects and senior sales executive and category manager for cherries, also is working both the supply and retail sides to promote the fruit, the release said.
“Pacific Trellis Fruit is recommending ads to run weeks 2-8 to take full advantage of promotional supplies as well as promote late Argentine fruit,” he said in the release. “There will also be a small rainier cherry program with fruit arriving towards the end of December. We are seeing that many customers have already penciled in big ads in both mid-January as well as for Valentine’s Day in February.”
In addition to the cherries, imported stone fruit is also available from Pacific Trellis Fruit. Available are peaches, plums and nectarines from Chile, along with plums from South Africa.
“We have air shipments into Miami along with vessel arrivals to the East Coast, where our dedicated quality control team manages our extensive repack capabilities. Our operations team monitors all inbound/outbound shipments allowing Pacific Trellis Fruit the ability to manage supply and optimize quality,” said Tim Davis, Stone Fruit Category Manager.
“We have a terrific program of yellow and white flesh nectarines, late-season plum varieties including applums, lemon plums and d’agen sugar plums and availability of a number of high-flavor/high-brix plum varieties like ruby sun, black pearl, and green red (aka flavor gator) out of South Africa which will arrive in mid-January and end in April,” Davis said in the release.
