Gem-Pack Berries is focused on coordinating with its retail customers to work through delays and transition into a successful late spring and summer berry season, says Michelle Deleissegues, vice president of marketing for the Irvine, Calif.-based marketer.
“We are still working on smoothing out the production hiccups and bubbles from winter’s disastrous conditions in California,” she said.
Gem-Pack ships berries out of California’s Orange County, Irvine and Oxnard in early spring, moving north into Santa Maria for spring and through summer and then finally Watsonville for later spring and throughout summer and fall, she said.
“Our more northern districts have been delayed this spring due to the 2023 storms, but we are now picking in all counties and quality is excellent,” Deleissegues said in early May.
Acreage for the supplier is “more or less” the same as a year ago. Gem-Pack offers both conventional and organic berries, but heavily weighted toward conventional fruit, she said.
Demand surge
Deleissegues said berry marketers and the health industry have done a good job of communicating the incredible health benefits of fresh berries.
“As consumer awareness increased, berry grower-shippers increased production to match consumer demand, including more geographically southern production in order to maintain consistent supply,” she said. “This has been a key factor in driving demand of berries from a spring/summer fruit favorite to a year-round dietary staple.”
In terms of packaging, Deleissegues said Gem-Pack continues to search for sustainable options that move the marketer to a more sustainable future and yet successfully transport and store berries, so the fruit make arrivals fresh and undamaged.
“It is not an easy task for such a delicate product,” she said.
Still moving up
The berry industry will continue its R&D of marketable varieties that maintain consumer expectations of year-round availability and consistent deliciousness, Deleissegues believes.
“Recently there has been the trend for unique flavors and colors such as the pineberry introduction in U.S., that also heightens excitement in the berry category,” she said.
