Staying competitive in regional deliveries of Chilean fruit arriving in ports of the Delaware River is a challenge for Krichmar Produce Co. Inc., which is located in Vineland, NJ.

Kenny Krichmar, the company's manager, said Dec. 29 that an increase in the cost of diesel fuel of 30 cents per gallon over the previous two weeks "will impact full-load and LTL [less than truckload] deliveries."

Krichmar Produce owns eight trucks and works with eight owner-operators to make LTL Chilean fruit deliveries.

Southern Specialties Inc., based in Pompano Beach, FL, will be importing Chilean blueberries through March, when the Florida deal begins.

"It looks like supplies from Chile will be good, with prices similar to last year," Sandy Gatanio, the firm's procurement coordinator, said Dec. 22. “We will be shipping both six-ounce and full-pint clamshells. We will also have some volume of organic blues in six-ounce clams.”

Southern Specialties’ first seasonal blueberry arrivals began about Dec. 1. The sea container blueberry program began days before Christmas.

High processed prices for Chilean blueberries in late December were threatening fresh-market supplies, according to Scott Hulsey, vice president of procurement for Gourmet Trading Co. in Los Angeles.

He told The Produce News Dec. 29 that Gourmet Trading had enjoyed company record high volume loadings over the previous two weeks. The high blueberry volume on the water represented "a nice groove right now" for the company. “It is a trend that is expected to continue through the next two or three weeks,” he said.

"In January I look for supermarkets to begin promoting Chilean grapes, and the fruit is excellent this year," William Kopke, vice president of Wm. H. Kopke Jr. Inc. in Lake Success, NY, said Dec. 29. “So far quality is excellent. We are very pleased that way.”

Asked to be more specific about when “promotable volumes” would begin, Mr. Kopke replied that retailers “will start sometimes promoting without asking us. All of a sudden there will be an ad in [the] paper at a high retail.” But generally, “I guess it will begin by mid-January.”

"The word we get out of Chile is that the fruit is going to come. There is a lot to come" despite a slow start, said Mark Greenberg, chief operating officer and senior vice president in charge of procurement of Fisher Capespan. Mr. Greenberg works from the company's Montreal office.

Industry giant Dole is now in its third season of growing strawberries in Florida. The company doubled its acreage in the state last season, and production is expected to increase again this year.

"We have acreage near Plant City and other locations about a half-hour south, growing a mix of proprietary, Radiance, Festival and Treasure strawberries," said Vincent Lopes, vice president of Monterey, CA-based Dole Berry Co.