Season halfway mark at DNE a great way to kick off grapefruit month
Season halfway mark at DNE a great way to kick off grapefruit month
“We’re just past the halfway mark on this 2014-15 Florida season, and the grapefruit has sized up nicely and at its peak flavor now,” said Mark Hanks, vice president of sales and marketing, North America, for DNE World Fruit Sales, headquartered in Fort Pierce, FL. “It’s a great way to kick off National Grapefruit Month, which starts Feb. 1. Our Ruby Reds are loaded with juice and are very sweet. We also have a good volume of large white grapefruit, which are at their peak as well and just as sweet as the reds.”
Hanks added that the company is offering some promotion incentives on the larger reds and whites this year, and DNE recommends that retailers advertise those sizes by the pound versus per piece because they are a great value this season. The company will also have plenty of bagged reds through the end of the season.
DNE World Fruit Sales’ winter citrus lineup features a great selection of ‘Ocean Spray’ brand products, including a variety of grapefruit. February is National Grapefruit Month.“Valencias will be starting in February, and we expect a nice crop of those as well,” Hanks noted. “The taste is so sweet on the Rhode Red Valencia that we’ll put those in the ‘Ocean Spray’ brand. Honey tangerine production is down this year in large part to our fight with greening, but we’re managing to get a fairly good volume this year.”
The season to date for DNE has been highly successful despite a challenging start. Hanks explained that the company’s growing regions had a lot of rain through the fall period and temperatures stayed too warm until November. But he added, “Now we are through that period and most of the fruit does not require any de-greening. It’s at maximum sweetness.”
DNE had just wrapped up its “best ever” “Baby-O” season in mid-January. The Mandarin variety being produced by the company has only an occasional seed.
“It has an incredible flavor and is very unique and superior to most of the clementines available at the same time of the season,” Hanks offered.
“Looking forward to spring, we will have clementines arriving from South Africa, Chile, Uruguay and Peru starting mid-May, just as the California crop is running out of W. Murcots,” he added.