Chelan Fresh fleshes out availability with Ambrosias
Chelan Fresh fleshes out availability with Ambrosias
Ambrosia apples are nectar of the gods for Chelan Fresh Marketing. “We’re really excited about the good quality of Ambrosias coming out of Canada,” said Director of Marketing Mac Riggan. “It’s an exciting new apple. We are growing the category with Canadian volume. We are selling to retailers who haven’t had access to this apple before.”
Chelan Fresh is the marketing arm for Chelan Fruit, a grower-member cooperative located in north central Washington. The cooperative is one of Washington’s premier grower-packer-shippers of conventional and organic apples, pears, cherries, plums and pluots. Members have production acreage situated from the Canadian border south to Central Washington.
Special high-graphic bags and displays have been designed to promote Ambrosias.
Red Delicious is also popular at this time of year, particularly in Asian markets gearing up to celebrate Chinese New Year. “We ship heavily to China,” Riggan noted.
Although Chelan Fresh’s monthly apple volume is generally steady throughout the year, Riggan said offshore volume does go up with the approach of Chinese New Year.
In cooperation with Borton & Sons Inc., Chelan Fresh is also marketing the Rockit apple. The small, crunchy apple variety is packaged in vertical tubes and is enjoying good marketplace acceptance. Previously, Rockits were imported from New Zealand. Riggan said a limited volume of Rockits planted in Washington moved into the marketplace this season.
