Berry People, Hollister, Calif., has a new source of Mexican berries to fill gaps in the fall and winter.
Organic blueberry harvest at a high-elevation plantation in Jalisco recently started, according to a news release, and supplies will last through January. Conventional strawberries from Guanajuato and Michoacan will complement Berry People’s other supplies from Latin America and the U.S.
“We will have predominantly organic production from this ranch, filling a generally undersupplied October-through-January window, with a focus on customers looking for the crunch, snap, and sweetness that Mexico can readily provide,” Jerald Downs, president of Berry People, said in the release about the blueberry plantation.
This Mexican organic production will be promoted for customers “who desire to further differentiate themselves at the consumer eating experience level,” he said in the release.
Harvest of the conventional strawberries in Irapuato and Zamora will begin in October and volumes will peak in December through January, ending in February. They will fill the gap between the Santa Maria, Calif., crop, which peaks in October, and the crop in Baja, California, Mexico, which peaks in February through April, according to the release.
The deal gives Berry People overlap in a “tricky market window” for strawberries, Downs said.
“We will have daily multi-load volumes by mid-November and can support sub-feature and feature promotional activity for ads breaking weeks 48 to 6,” he said in the release.
Berry People’s goal is to offer a year-round supply of organic and conventional blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
“While the company’s individual commodity and overall category growth rate is projected above triple digits both for 2019 and 2020, we are very focused on building balance in our daily portfolio of berries,” Downs said in the release.
The company is also expanding its U.S. operations from Long Beach, Calif., to McAllen, Texas, to better serve customers in the Midwestern and Eastern U.S. and Canada, according to the release.
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