Legend Produce supports retail, wholesale and foodservice partners ahead of peak melon season
Legend Produce supports retail, wholesale and foodservice partners ahead of peak melon season
As peak melon season approaches, Legend Produce is ramping up shipments of its premium melon offering, including Kiss Melons varieties, Origami cantaloupe, full size watermelons, mini watermelons and honeydews. The company is offering promotable volumes to meet demand across retail, wholesale and foodservice channels this year. 
With harvests under way in Arizona and Mexico, and soon transitioning to California, the company is well-positioned to deliver consistent quality and supply through the summer months.
“This year, we have done a lot of work to understand where the melon category is heading and to shift our operations to better serve the needs of our customers and deliver more value and a better eating experience to consumers and shoppers,” said Barry Zwillinger, co-founder at Legend Produce. Our customers are our partners, and we are in constant communication with them, listening to feedback to better align our plans with their needs. Every year has challenges. For example, this year early in the season, we experienced smaller sizing on some netted melons out of Arizona, but that didn’t deter our team to execute on our plans and deliver on our commitments to our customers.”
The company expects a smooth transition with no gaps as production moves from warmer regions like northern Mexico and the deserts of Arizona and California to areas with more favorable growing conditions for this time of year, such as Aguila in north-central Arizona and the Huron area in California.
“We will have availability of all our melons varieties for the duration of the domestic melon season, and we’re letting customers know we have some great-tasting melon options they can confidently promote,” said Zwillinger.
Legend Produce is also implementing internal improvements to enhance operational efficiency, meet evolving food-safety standards and continue delivering better-tasting melon varieties.
“We are ramping up investments in seed and melon trials, software and hardware for enhanced traceability, and packing equipment that will help us automate some of the tasks that are currently done by hand,” said Marco Ochoa, CFO of Legend Produce. “We are making long term investments because we know our customers, our team members and the fruit we ship will all benefit. That creates more value for everyone involved and gets us closer to our objective of helping increase consumption of the melon category.”
