Chuck Sinks, president of Sage Fruit Co. LLC, said he is pleased with apple movement this season. “All varieties are moving well through the first pick and right up to the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays,” he told The Produce News. 

“Christmas and Thanksgiving always bring a good spike in apple and pear sales, as holiday baking starts up, and retailers begin building fruit baskets with apples and pears as a main building component,” he said.

The company, located in Yakima, WA, markets a full apple manifest including Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonagold, Gala, Rome, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Cameo and Honeycrisp. Sage Fruit’s proprietary variety is the Sonya apple, a gourmet piece of fruit.

“Size has tended to lean more to the large sizes in several varieties. But it has been sporadic toward small sizes in other varieties,” he said. 

Sage Fruit Co. LLC works with its retail partners to promote a variety of marketing programs designed to increase sales and profitability. (Photo courtesy of Sage Fruit Co. LLC)“It’s kind of a mixed bag this year.  Quality has been good, although the hot summer months had created some instances of concern in some varieties this past growing season. In some varieties, we will see less premium packs than others because of the weather,” he added.

Sage Fruit works to even out its sales throughout the year. “The winter months are typically good selling periods for apples, as they are readily available and hold their quality well at retail,” Sinks said. “Variety options are at their peak this time of year and will remain so throughout the winter months.”

He said retailers can be supplied with the sizes and grades needed to supply customers while promoting sales and profitability. “While some of the higher grade fruit will begin to get tight as we move through the winter months, we should be able to maintain the supply on these and lower grade options as well,” he illustrated.

Sage Fruit is continuing a variety of successful marketing programs designed to move quality fruit. “We continue our ongoing relationship with the Produce Mom to help promote healthy eating, along with the Biggest Loser program, Kasey Kahne racing promotions, our national Kids In Force program and our Sage Sweet program,” he stated. “We have retailers that like to pick and choose between these programs. We like to give our customers choices that fits their needs.”

The company is working on several new future packing options for apples and pears. “We have begun production on our Crazy Apple varieties again for this season,” Sinks said. “We are also huge supporters of the tote bag apple program, with several options for retailers to do tote bag fruit displays using our high-graphic pop up bins.”

Sage continues to work with domestic retailers to help cross promote ads and events on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media outlets. “We have in place a full time social media director, who is in constant contact with retailers to help get the word out on new happenings in the apple industry,” Sinks said. “And we are always researching new ways to interact with the online public through contest and regional events.”