Bard Valley Date Growers’ Holiday Medjools offer ‘the luxury of flavor’ with seasonallly themed packs
Bard Valley Date Growers’ Holiday Medjools offer ‘the luxury of flavor’ with seasonallly themed packs
“Consumers don’t want to give up the luxury of flavor when choosing a healthy snack,” Erin Hanagan-Muths, the director of marketing for Bard Valley Date Growers, said.
“To offer that combination of healthy and delicious,” Bard Valley will be offering completely new Medjool date and date roll products from the last week in October through the end of December, Hanagan-Muths said.
Bard Valley Date Growers’ holiday items offer consumers a healthy and delicious combination. One of these is a holiday platter containing pitted Medjool dates, date rolls and a chocolate dipping sauce.
The second new product is holiday tray with three flavors of date rolls. The tray’s flavors are almond, coconut and a dark chocolate-orange date roll.
These are ideal for serving on holiday platters and give an option to the holiday party veggie trays.
“It’s something different to try,” Hanagan-Muths said Oct. 16. “This is totally new for us and it’s totally new for the retail category. We’re excited to see how retailers react. So far, we’ve had great feedback” on the concept.
Hanagan-Muths noted that Bard Valley Date Growers enjoyed “a great harvest. We had beautiful weather. There was not one bit of bad weather. We’ve had great yields again. The dates are plump, fresh and beautiful.”
Bard Valley Date Growers, whose members produce 4,000 acres of Medjool dates, finished harvest Oct. 7.
The fruit is grown on the California and Arizona sides of the Colorado River. Bard Valley Date Growers is based in Bard, CA, which is across the Colorado River from Yuma, AZ.
The company’s “Natural Delights”-brand dates are packed by Datepac LLC, in Yuma.
Hanagan-Muths said the first shipments of the new crop included exporting 11-pound boxes. The firm ships dates throughout the world.
Datepac invested $1 million in equipment upgrades prior to this season. Among the benefits of the investment are improved blending capabilities for the new date rolls.
“There are a lot of great advancements. Everything is great. Our productivity is up and our costs are down,” said Hanagan-Muths.
From August until Oct. 26, Bard Valley was shipping a new product, Pecan Pumpkin Pie Spiced. In late October, this pecan-pumpkin date roll shipping would overlap with the initial availability of Dark Chocolate Orange date rolls, which are expected to be in the market until Dec. 7.
