Eagle Eye Grape Guys LLC in Visalia, CA, a subsidiary of Eagle Eye Produce Co. in Idaho Falls, ID, expects to ship about 300,000 boxes of grapes in its Sonora, Mexico, grape program, predominantly during the months of May and June, according to Shaun Ricks, vice president of the company.

“We will be up from last year,” he said. “Most of our volume is out of the Hermosillo area. We’re just not as big out of Caborca,” and that is by design. Caborca is the later district in the Sonora deal. With most of The Grape Guys’ heavy concentration on Hermosillo, he expects 80 percent of the company’s volume to come in the month of May and the first week of June.

“My first fruit will come off out of Pesqueira,” on the north side of Hermosillo, with an anticipated start date for Perlettes between May 2 and May 5, Ricks said. “We could probably have fruit earlier than that, but we want to allow for full maturity and berry size.” He expected “significant volume by the end of that week, with Perlettes being in full volume by around May 7 to 9. “I think I will have Flames by the end of that week as well,” with volume in Flames coming on by May 12.

The Grape Guys will be packing “the standard pack style, which is 18-pound cartons,” with gusseted stand-up pouch bags, or “handle bags,” used exclusively for bagged grapes.

“All the chains are wanting it,” he said. In addition, “we will be packing RPCs, and we will be packing clamshells, two-pounds, three-pounds an four-pounds.”

The company continues to use its “Grape guys” label. The artwork for the label has “three little [cartoon] grape guys with faces,” he said.

The grapes will ship out of the Eagle Eye facility in Nogales, “which I think is one of the best facilities in town,” he said.

The Grape Guys will have two sales people and two quality control people in Nogales full-time from the first of May to the end of June, he said. “I will be there the whole time.” Also on the sales side, Eric Beno and Erasmo Marin will alternate.

Due to the earlier start this year, Ricks expected to have promotable volume for Memorial Day, “and that is really the first time in a while. The company has always had volume for Memorial Day, but not always promotable volume prior to Memorial Day, he said. “This year, we will, and that is really a good thing.”

In addition to Perlettes and Flames, The Grape Guys will have Sugraones, Red Globes and Summer Royal black seedless grapes in its Mexican program.

“We are looking forward to getting started,” Ricks said. “We have been involved in the Chilean deal, and it has been a tough deal.” Because of weather problems in Chile, “the quality has been rough. I feel like everybody is ready for a fresh start.”