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Southern Specialties proudly celebrates 25th anniversary

This year marks the 25th anniversary for Pompano Beach, FL-based Southern Specialties — a grower, importer, processor and shipper of a variety of specialty products grown in Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

“We made it!” Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development, proudly told The Produce News.

“As the year progresses, we will be incorporating that 25th anniversary message into our ads and those events we participate in, leading up to PMA [Fresh Summit Convention and Expo] in October, and beyond,” he added.

And what better way to celebrate than with a successful growing season, as well as new products and programs.

Unknown-2Southern Specialties is currently shipping its Southern Selects’ Florida-grown blueberries as part of its soft-berry program, which also includes Southern Selects’ blackberries and premium Adelita variety raspberries.“We are having a good year,” Eagle said. “We fortunately haven’t had much in the way of dramatic incidents in our growing regions.”

While Eagle did say the company has experienced its fair share of rain and cool weather this winter, he said it hasn’t had any major impacts on its produce.

“We’ve had reasonably good growing conditions throughout the season,” he added.

Southern Specialties continues to be a leader in Peruvian asparagus, Eagle said, and this year, its Mexican asparagus program has shown significant growth as well.

The company ships both products from its Pompano Beach headquarters, as well as its other locations including McAllen, TX and Los Angeles.

In addition to those programs, the company’s seedless Persian lime program from Guatemala has also been having great success.

“We’ve been educating consumers on the products and showing them that Guatemalan limes yield considerably more juice than the Mexican varieties,” Eagle said.

Southern Specialties has been growing and marketing Southern Selects true heirloom tomato varieties for several years.

Its program has expanded to include a menu of colorful and delicious large and baby heirlooms hydroponically grown in Guatemala. A new multi-pack is available in a compostable, biodegradable tray with a clear recyclable top.

The company is currently shipping its Southern Selects’ Florida-grown blueberries as part of its soft-berry program, which also includes Southern Selects’ blackberries and premium Adelita variety raspberries.

“Right now everything looks good,” Eagle told The Produce News in early March. “We expect to go through the entire Florida season shipping six-ounce clamshells.”

Eagle said the company expects its blueberries to run through the end of April.

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