“We are continuing to come up with new innovative packaging,” Paul Huckabay, citrus manager for Western citrus at Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. in Visalia, CA, said in an interview with The Produce News Oct. 19.

In Mandarins, for example, Duda’s conventional Mandarin packaging consists of five-pound boxes and two- and three-pound bags. “The newest innovative packaging we have on our Mandarin program is a small four-count bag,” he said. “It is a grab-and-go convenience bag that is going to be offered at convenience stores and conventional retail stores.” The gusseted stand-up bag has a zip closure to allow consumers The Duda sales team in Visalia: (back row) Kent Huckabay, Joel Gonzalez, Brent Young and Paul Huckabay; (front row) Veronica Lara and Rosie Mendez. (Photo courtesy of Duda Farm Fresh Foods)to reseal the bag after removing some of the fruit.

“The same goes for the Meyer lemons,” Mr. Huckabay continued. “We have the gusseted one-pound zip-lock bag with high-graphic artwork.”

For Mandarins, Duda will also have “a new display unit that we will be using to complement the grab-and-go bags in retail stores this season. It will have all the nice graphics that we utilize on our Mandarin packaging today. It is going to enable retailers to position the product in different locations throughout the store.”

With the Meyer lemons as well, “we will also have a display unit that will complement the bags and offer some flexibility for the retailer,” he said.

Duda, which is headquartered in Ovieda, FL, will have in its California citrus program Navel oranges, lemons, Minneolas, Cara Caras and Mandarins — clementines and Murcotts. “And of course Meyer lemons are a big item for us,” Mr. Huckabay said.

“Our season will begin the week of November 5” with Navels, he said. That is “slightly delayed” from earlier expectations. “We had expected it to begin the week of October 30, but with the unseasonably warm weather we have been having the last month or so, it has delayed the maturity, specifically related to color. The fruit is very green at this point, so that has delayed our harvesting plans. But we fully expect to be shipping our first California Navels the week of November 5.”

That is not really that far off from the historical average start date, which would be around Oct. 25 or 26 for harvesting with a few days required for de-greening prior to packing, he said.

“It is a good-sized crop, probably very comparable to last season,” Mr. Huckabay continued. “In regard to fruit size, we are looking at equal to or maybe slightly smaller” average fruit size at the beginning of the season than last year. “Large sizes are going to be very limited, I should say, through the Christmas holiday. In addition to the unseasonably warm weather, we have also had a lack of rain, which we need right now to help the fruit grow and size up. We are hoping that we will have some rains coming soon so that the fruit will start to increase in size.”

Overall, “the crop looks very nice, and we are anticipating a very good season,” he said.

For Duda, the Navel crop “could be slightly larger just due to the fact that some trees are starting to come into their full production,” he said.

In Mandarins as well, “we are looking at a slight increase in volume over last season, again largely due to trees coming into full maturity.” The Mandarins appear to have “a nice distribution of sizes, from large to small, but not too heavy one way or the other,” he said.

The company’s Mandarin program will start with clementines, followed by W. Murcotts after the new year. It will continue through April.

Meyer lemons are “a large program for us,” he said. “Again, it looks like November 5 is probably the magic day” for shipping to start, as with several other items. They are “very much in demand,” he said. Meyer lemons are “a real foodie item” that has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds over the last four or five years.

Meyer lemon volume for Duda will be similar to last year, but “we have new acreage planted, he said. We will start to see some production off of those trees over the next few years” with some pretty significant increases in volume.

The company’s Minneola season should start around the first week in January, Mr. Huckabay said. “Again we have a lot of acres planted,” and those plantings “are now hitting full production.”

Cara Caras are “a relatively young item for our program,” he said. The first crop, which was very light, came off last year, but there should be “a natural increase in volume” this year. The expected start date is around mid-December.

Duda will begin harvesting regular lemons from Central California in early November. “We will continue with that crop all the way through springtime.” The crop size looks good, he said, and the fruit size profile is average.

Duda also imports lemons from Mexico and Chile, rounding out a year-round program.

Similarly, with Navel oranges and clementines, “we import from Chile and Morocco in an effort to close that loop as much as we can,” he said. “We try to be in the citrus business 12 months out of the year if possible. We also have our Florida citrus program.”

The company offers “a good mix of citrus varieties, enabling it to offer customers “several different citrus products at one location,” he said.

A new addition to the sales team in the Visalia office this year is Brent Young, who was previously with Old West Produce, Mr. Huckabay said. “He will be here as a sales account manager for Duda Farms Fresh Foods responsible for domestic and import sales.” Also on sales, “in addition to myself,” are Joel Gonzales and Kent Huckabay, who is my brother.”