The winter season is a popular time for offshore produce, and this year is no exception.

While blueberries and cherries have been staple imports from Chile to the U.S. market for many years, the recent addition of imported grapes and stone fruit has opened even more doors for business and inspired new promotional initiatives from the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association.

“To launch the season, the CFFA will be using creative marketing elements that encourage retail promotions, motivate shopper purchases and expand our penetration at the retail level,” Karen Brux, managing director for the CFFA, told The Produce News in a prior interview in early January.

A volcano erupting in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Charlie Eagle, Southern Specialties.These efforts are in addition to the CFFA’s existing customized marketing support, which it offers to importers, wholesalers and retailer across the United States and Canada, and includes point-of-sale materials to support retail chains in their promotions of Chilean products.

“These materials merchandise the large spectrum of fruits available from Chile during the winter months,” Brux continued. “The best way for retailers to pull consumer attention to Chilean fruit is by creating large attractive displays and giving shoppers reasons to purchase it.”

And giving shoppers a reason to buy Chilean fruit should be a relatively easy feat, considering the new year kicked off with excellent volumes, according to Frank A. Ramos, president and chief executive officer of The Perishable Specialist Inc., a customs broker headquartered in Miami.

“The Chilean season is in full swing now and the volumes we are handling this year are greater than at this same time last year,” he told The Produce News on Jan. 26.

“Our customers comments are that the Chilean season should go into April,” he added.

The Perishable Specialist also recently announced that it was named the notify party and customs broker for SeaLand’s first branded refrigerated container to arrive into North America, allowing even more refrigerated and frozen cargo from Chile to arrive on a weekly basis through Port Everglades.

“The arrival dates are consistent which provide excellent estimation dates when you are trying to get to market in a fast and efficient manner,” Ramos noted.

So what offshore produce items can consumers expect to find in stores this winter season?

Well, in addition to blueberries, cherries, grapes and stone fruit from Chile, companies that The Produce News spoke with are also handling items such as mangos, watermelon, honeydews, cantaloupe, limes, hard squash, asparagus, sno peas, snap peas, avocados and specialty tomatoes (among others) from various countries, including, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Brazil, Honduras and Ecuador.

With the season in full swing, and no signs of slowing down any time soon, it’s safe to say that there will be a wide-array of offshore produce to satisfy consumers’ pallets well into mid-April and possibly even May.