“We are very excited that we have recently been granted the American Heart Association’s Heart Healthy seal,” signifying that “Bard Valley Natural Delights” brand Medjool dates are “a good addition to diets that are low in fat,” said Erin Hanagan, “Natural Delights” marketing manager for Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association in Yuma, AZ, in an interview with The Produce News Sept. 3.

The association launched the “Bard Valley Natural Delights” label two years ago for use on all of its products, which includes Medjool dates and date rolls.

“Our packaging will be changing in the fall and will now bear the AHA Heart Check mark,” so consumers who are familiar with the mark, “which most people are, will be able to see this as part of our packaging,” she said.

For the coming holiday season, Bard Valley will be doing “some special holiday shipper displays for our trade partners,” Hanagan said. “Our sales team is out talking about those right now. This is an opportunity to have incremental placement for Medjool dates for the holidays” which are “traditionally a very high sales time” for dates in general and Medjools specifically.

The association represents Medjool growers members who are located in Yuma and in nearby Bard, CA, on either side of the lower Colorado River. Sales for Bard Valley Medjools are handled by the grower-owned DatePac LLC in Yuma, which also does most of the packing for the association’s members.

“Bard Valley Natural Delights are the number one brand of Medjool dates in the market both in volume and in dollar sales,” and volume has been growing steadily, Hanagan said. This year, “we are expecting to bring in about 20 percent more volume than we did last year.”

Part of that growth is from young groves coming into fuller production and part is just from heavier production in the groves than a year ago. “We are having a wonderful harvest,” she said. “We started harvesting about three weeks ago,” around mid-August, “and we are seeing beautiful fruit.”

The weather “has been great this year” during the growing season and during the harvest, to date, Hanagan said. The date groves have not received any of the heavy monsoon rains that some other parts of the valley have experienced, “so we have been able to get the fruit off the trees in very, very good undamaged condition.”

In addition to young groves “coming into full fruit bearing,” she said, in the mature groves, “our trees are just bearing a very high amount of beautiful fruit this year.”

The increasing sales volume of “Bard Valley Natural Delights” Medjools “is definitely indicative of the fact that more and more consumers are becoming aware of Medjool dates,” Hanagan said. “More and more retailers are carrying Medjool dates year-round, which they are finding to be a very good idea. People who consume dates and are looking for the health benefits of dates aren’t just looking during the holidays. It is something that people are starting to integrate into their diet on a daily basis.”

Medjools are “a great portable healthy snack,” she said. They are “a great source of calcium” along with good amounts of fiber and other nutrients. They are a healthy way to get a boost in sustainable energy.

“We have a very comprehensive consumer campaign which focuses on the health benefits of Medjool dates,” she said. It also provides consumers with recipes and other information about Medjools. “We have a very strong following on our Facebook page and on our website” at naturaldelights.com. “We recently redid our entire website, and it has everything from the story of Medjool dates … to our profiles on our growers” as well as describing the products.

In addition, “we do print ads and we have a very strong social media presence,” she said.

“We work with food bloggers. So we have a great presence out there with the consumers. We are starting to see that be something that is helping to increase the awareness level of Medjool dates and reinforce for consumers who are already consuming Medjool dates and different ways that they can utilize them in their cooking and snacking regimens.”

In June 2013, two new key personnel joined the organization — John Haydock as vice president of global sales and Dean White as vice president of operations. “Dean came from the Mars Co., and John came from Mann Packing,” Hanagan said.