Los Angeles based Gourmet Trading Co., a worldwide importer and distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables, is introducing a new product this year from its Peruvian asparagus deal: a tri-color pack that combines green, purple and white asparagus.

Ayco Farms Inc. in Pompano Beach, FL, which already claims to be one of the top-five importers of Peruvian asparagus, expects significant growth this year as a result of a strengthening of its procurement practices.

“We think we will have sustained growth of 25-35 percent this year,” said Peter Warren, who bears the title of asparagus salesperson. “We have changed how we are going about procuring product. And by doing that, we have improved the quality of our pack, and that is going to increase our retail business. It is a cause-and-effect kind of thing.”

Though it is going to be a challenging year because of economic conditions, Alpine Fresh Inc. is expecting to increase its volume of Peruvian asparagus this year led by new production of purple asparagus.

“Stevco’s program is set up to where a large percentage of our volume is shipped in the fall, during the months of September through December,” said Jared Lane, vice president of sales and marketing.

The Grape Guys in Cutler, CA, considers itself primarily a red grape house, in that it is “heaviest to Flames and Crimsons,” according to Shaun Ricks, the company’s founder and president.

The Flame crop this year has been “excruciating[ly]“ slow to come on this year, he said Aug. 4. “We expect to use the whole month of August to get our Flames in.”

Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC in Traver, CA, has a strong fall fruit program consisting not only of grapes and stone fruit, which are the company’s major product categories, but also pomegranates and persimmons.

“Our stone fruit — our peach, nectarine and plum deal — will continue strong well into October as it usually does, complementing our grape program that is just getting into full swing,” said Louis Scattaglia, managing partner of SGS, in an interview with The Produce News Aug. 5.