Good volume, good demand and good taste are only the start of the characterizations of the 2010-11 apple season for Brett Burdsal, marketing manager for Columbia Marketing International in Wenatchee, WA. "Demand is up, and volume is up from last year," he told The Produce News in mid- December. “Demand is very strong.”

Peter Forrence, co-owner of Forrence Orchards in Peru, NY, said that the company is having a good season, but he added, "It's a little hard to know if we’ll be short of supplies as we head further into 2011. The damage to citrus due to the Florida freeze has put some pressure on alternative fruit items, including apples."

Increased export demand has added even more pressure to the U.S. apple supply this year, and Mr. Forrence said that more fruit is being exported to Russia, the United Kingdom, Asia and other areas of the world.

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.”