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.

As the new year rang in, Joel Silverman, owner of Paradise Produce Distributors in Lakeland, FL, was hoping a flood of strawberries would follow.

December was pretty much a washout due to several nights of sub-freezing weather spread over three weeks. At a time when Florida strawberry growers would normally be harvesting thousands of acres, they were instead picking hundreds.