It cleans out the pipeline, number one, then also two it creates that thirst and demand not only from the consumer but the retailers as well. "There’s going to be a gap of a few weeks and sometimes that gap is good.
We then bring product in from Chile so we have a full-year, 52-week supply for our customers," Nager said. "From a sourcing standpoint, our California Cuties will be harvesting and shipping the 1 st of November – that will go through about April, beginning of May. Cuties however are well and truly mainstream, and Sun Pacific's task now is to secure more volume. These introductions bring the diversity that shoppers crave to the produce aisle but they remain niche. "Also this year we’re going to be shipping Cara Caras which we’ve been growing but we have not been selling – a Cara Cara is a Navel orange with higher Vitamin C and higher Vitamin A than a regular Navel - it’s a bit sweeter," Nager said. The group has also seen good demand for its Vintage Sweet Navel oranges, bringing heirloom branding to fruit from 100-year-old trees with higher Brix (sweetness) content than standard Navels in the earlier part of the season, and has also introduced six-count overwrapped trays. Nager says they remains a "big item", particularly in the cold and flu season, and Sun Pacific utilizes a range of packaging sizes and merchandising options to boost rotation. That's not to say Navels haven't been a successful crop. This is no small issue given Sun Pacific is the largest independent Navel grower in the country.
It is a double-digit growth trend that has run in parallel with, and perhaps been partly responsible for, a fairly flat market in the U.S. It has really driven the citrus category," he told Fresh Fruit Portal during the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fresh Summit last week. We were the first to come to market here and the category has just exploded. "Cuties of course are a major part of what it is that we do – there are very few brands in the produce industry that a three-year-old can recognize without a label on it and say “that’s a Cutie”," said VP of business development Howard Nager.
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