Premier Citrus Marketing, Vero Beach, Fla., has hired Kevin Swords as director of North American sales and added fruit from two more packinghouses.
Swords most recently was with Wonderful Citrus in Fla., and was at DNE World Fruit Sales, Fort Pierce, Fla., for more than 25 years, as a citrus sales manager.
The company is now marketing fruit from Egan Fruit Packing, Fellsmere, Fla., and Indian River Exchange Packers, Vero Beach, according to a news release.
Premier Citrus Marketing President Jimmy Johnson said Egan Fruit’s total volumes last season was about 658,000 cartons and Indian River Exchange Packers’ was about 566,000 cartons. For domestic sales, Johnson said the two new suppliers add about 800,000 cartons
“We will add a lot of oranges this year,” Johnson said.
With Premier Citrus Marketing’s 1 million domestic cartons, the company expects to market between 1.8 million and 2 million cartons on the domestic market, depending on the crop each season, Johnson said in an e-mail.
Premier Citrus Marketing also sells citrus for Riverfront Packing, Vero Beach, and Packers of Indian River Ltd., Fort Pierce, Fla., but most of that goes to export markets, Johnson said.
Citrus from Egan Fruit and Indian River Exchange Packers will be available in the original labels
Swords joins Dave Haller and Derek Rodgers on the Premier Citrus domestic sales desk.
The company sells lemons, juice oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and specialty citrus.
“We want to be a one-stop show for all of our clients’ needs,” Johnson said in the release.
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