Los Angeles, California-based Pacific Trellis Fruit is preparing for the upcoming import cherry 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,” said Marcial Hernandez, director of imported fruit.
Pacific Trellis Fruit is sourcing cherries from Chile and Argentina, providing random weight bags and fixed weight 1-pound or 2-pound clamshells under the Dulcinea brand. Fruit can be flown into Miami along with vessel arrivals at East and West Coast ports.
The fruit is brought to the U.S. in bulk shipments of 5 kilo boxes and repacked using a wet-line to provide quality control. Quality control teams manage the inbound and outbound product from the shipping point to the customer.
Dan Carapella Jr., director of special projects, senior sales executive and category manager for cherries, is also working the supply and retail side to promote the fruit.
“Pacific Trellis Fruit is recommending ads to run two to eight weeks to take full advantage of promotional supplies, as well as promote late Argentine fruit,” Carapella said.
“There will also be a small Rainier Cherry program with fruit arriving now [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 front and center for Pacific Trellis Fruit. Available fruits are peaches, plums and nectarines from Chile, along with a plum program from South Africa.
“We have air shipments into Miami along with vessel arrivals to the East Coast. 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.”
For more information on Pacific Trellis Fruit and Dulcinea, visit pacifictrellisfruit.com.
