As reported previously in The Produce News, Bayshore Produce LLC, an import-export company based in Miami, that has been heavily involved in Chilean exports, entered the California grape deal this summer in order to offer clients an extended season on grapes and has introduced a new trademarked retail brand, “Grapes in the Sun.”

Since launching the new program in July, “we have shipped quite a few loads of our label, and everything is going well,” said founder and managing partner Rosann Cabrera in an interview with The Produce News Aug. 7. “Quality has been nice. We picked good co-packers to work with,” and so far everything has gone smoothly.

‘Grapes in the Sun’ brand red seedless grapes from Bayshore.Initial customer response to the newly introduced label has been good, so “we have decided to carry this through the Chilean season,” which was the hope at the outset, according to Cabrera. “I have already talked to two or three shippers down in Chile, and they are willing to pack for us, so it looks like we are going to have a year-round program for ‘Grapes in the Sun,’ which we are excited about.”

The grapes are being packed in high-graphic gusseted handle bags, Cabrera said. “So far, we are only doing the bags. But we are making labels for clamshells, so we should be able to [pack in clamshells] in the next month or so.”

This season, the clamshells will only b packed with a single variety in each clam, she said. The company is contemplating doing multi-color packs for the future, but “not as of yet. We want to see how the single color does, and then possibly, maybe for next season” will look at multi-color packs.

In California currently “we are doing all varieties of grapes,” Cabrera said. “We have three red PLUs, three green PLUs,” and one for black seedless and one for Red Globes, “so we cover all varieties,” she said.

Grapes are the company’s biggest volume item both for export and for import, so extending the season with domestic product out of California in a company label “is a natural fit,” Cabrera said. “We have quite a few customers already in the grape category.”

The sales team in the company’s Tampa, FL, office in particular are “trying to promote more retail business,” Cabrera said. “So having our own label is a much better fit.”

Bayshore produce has been promoting its new label and its domestic grape program through quite a bit” of trade advertising

The program may he extended to other production areas as well. “We even had a grower call us from Peru” who expressed “interest in working with us,” she said.