AMC Direct offering Tango clementines from Chile
AMC Direct offering Tango clementines from Chile
GLASSBORO, NJ — This summer, AMC Direct will be importing the first Tango clementines produced in Chile. These will be received from the end of August through September.
Tango is a proprietary variety that is jointly owned (50 percent each) by AMC and Eurosimillias, which is based in Spain and markets Tango in Europe. This is the third season for AMC to market Tangos grown in Peru, according to Miles Fraser-Jones, senior vice president of AMC.
Fraser-Jones explained that Tango is a 100 percent seedless Clementine “with very good eating quality and good color, which sets us apart from other marketers.”
AMC receives Peruvian Tangos from late June through mid-September. The Tango has a peak size of two. The fruit is shipped in 1x, 1, 2 and three sizes.
The Tango is being marketed under AMC’s “Personal Selection” brand, which is known for its “high minimum specs,” Fraser-Jones noted. “It’s all about Brix-to-acid ratios.”
AMC is introducing a new “Personal Selection” bag this year. Shipped in bulk, the fruit is repacked at Eastern ProPack, which is near AMC’s Glassboro, NJ, office.
AMC also uses the “Personal Selection” brand on its propriety Sheehan Genetics grapes as well.
“We own all of his varieties,” Fraser-Jones said of California’s late grape breeder, Timothy Sheehan. AMC owns a firm, Special New Fruit Licensing Ltd., that owns Sheehan Genetics and Citrus Genesis S.L. Citrus Genetics is an international group of highly specialized companies dealing with citrus breeding, varietal development and the management of protected cultivars at a worldwide level.
In the grape business, the demand for proprietary varieties exceeds supply. “People are tired of the old,” Fraser-Jones said.
He added that the Sheehan varieties were bred for ideal commercial set and bunch shape, which are factors that lower the production cost by reducing field labor.
“Labor gets more and more expensive every year,” Fraser-Jones noted.
South African citrus
The 2015 South African deal is off to an early and fast start, Fraser-Jones said. The first reefer vessel arrived June 14 at the Holt Marine Terminal in Gloucester City, NJ. A second June arrival was scheduled for late in the month. Furthermore, he said, three South African reefer vessels were scheduled for Holt in July. This is two more vessels in those two months than arrived a year ago.
“Last year was good,” he noted. “Our volume will increase this year by 10 or 15 percent.”
The early eating quality is better this year and the color of the early fruit is “much improved,” he said. Typically, early citrus is yellowish while there was a strong orange color early in the 2015 South African deal.
