Posts Tagged “feature”
California produces about 99 percent of the persimmons consumed in the US, with imports from Chile and Israel supplementing the market during the spring months.
Giumarra Companies of Los Angeles reports strong persimmon volume and outstanding quality for the holiday season when consumer interest usually peaks.
Giumarra notes overall fruit quality across its product lines remains strong, with size and total volume tracking closely with last year.
As global persimmon shipments rebound and international suppliers prepare for stronger 2025 volumes, Giumarra maintains domestic and imported fruit play complementary roles rather than competing directly.
Giumarra is one of the largest shippers of persimmons in the United States. The company points out imported persimmons operate within a different shipping window and therefore do not compete directly with domestic volume.
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After years of below-average production, Washington state frozen raspberry growers reported a bountiful 2025 crop of over 68 million pounds. According to Gavin Willis, Executive Director of the Washington Red Raspberry Commission (WRRC), this is the state’s highest volume since 2018.
Excessively high temperatures led to what Willis calls “a heat dome” during the 2021 and 2022 harvests, which hit the industry hard in both service and plant development. The result was a massive 30 percent dip in production in 2021 compared to 2020, followed by another 23 percent drop in 2022.
The damage was done, and the path back to peak performance was ahead. Patience and plant rotation were key to Washington’s frozen raspberry comeback. The executive explains that today, most of the plantings impacted during the 2021 heat dome are being cycled out of the fields, and those that still remain seem, for the most part, to have healed.
The executive says the year brought good weather through the pollination window and the six to eight-week harvest period. The absence of any persistent cloud cover kept good moisture levels in the field, curbing excess mold and resulting in what Willis calls an excellent yield for the frozen raspberry category.
Washington produces 90 percent of the United States’ frozen raspberries, with 99.8 percent of their crop going to this category.
Mexico is the biggest exporter of fresh raspberries into the country, with a largely unchallenged market share of 72 percent. In the frozen category, Mexico ranks second, behind Chile, with sales of almost $23 million in 2024. But the Aztec country is only diverting five percent of its production to the frozen raspberry category, so the opportunity for growth is ripe for the taking.
Willis explains that Washington frozen raspberries cannot compete with Mexico because, for them, there’s no price floor.
For the past five to seven years, he says, byproducts from the Mexican fresh market (fruit that didn’t make grade or diversions from higher-than-demand production) are being repackaged and folded into the US frozen market. This is significantly affecting the prices Washington growers can aspire to.
“It’s impossible to compete, and for buyers it’s really hard to turn down something that’s basically being offered to you at less than what it costs to produce it,” Willis says. “A lot of these producers or growers are selling this product when they’ve already made their profits in the fresh market, [so] they don’t need to make a profit on it.”
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The Peruvian table grape season is progressing strongly.
As of mid November, nearly 40 percent of the Peruvian table grapes in Piura had been harvested, with quality described as high, especially impressive given the severe drought earlier this year.
Meanwhile, demand is surging for Autumncrisp®, the green grape brand that has rapidly become a consumer favorite in the US, with its larger size, crunch, and flavor.
Peru, the world’s largest producer of the Sugra35 variety known as Autumncrisp®, has seen exports double since last season, with more than 17 million boxes expected to ship this year. Despite a later start due to weather and import tariff concerns, shipments of Peruvian table grapes are now underway and began arriving in the US around Thanksgiving.
Currently, Piura is harvesting, but the main volume will come from Ica, followed by newer arrivals from the emerging Nazca region, which offers an earlier Peruvian table grape harvest window thanks to its unique microclimate.
With Autumncrisp® making up around 20 percent of Peru’s projected 87 million box total for the 2025/2026 season, and peak volumes expected by February, the outlook is robust.
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Everyone’s favorite toast topping may soon claim even more space on US produce shelves, with the Hass Avocado Board (HAB) projecting that shipments will bring avocado volumes to surpass three billion pounds by the end of 2025. The unprecedented avocado volumes signal just how deeply the “green gold” has rooted in American eating habits.
“This is a landmark moment for the avocado industry,” says HAB Executive Director Emiliano Escobedo. “Surpassing 3 billion pounds is not just a number—it’s a testament to the tireless efforts of producers, importers, and marketers who have worked together to meet the growing demand for avocados in the US market.”
HAB says the projected avocado volume represents a four percent increase from 2024 and reflects the ongoing consumer interest in avocados as a versatile, nutrient-dense product. The organization attributes the growth to coordinated promotions, enhanced supply-chain management, and sustained work to ensure year-round quality and availability.
An early production surge is giving importers in the United States and Europe a head start on the winter Chilean cherry import season.
The Chilean cherry is considered a premium fruit in China, and producers are hoping to charm shoppers worldwide as the Andean country looks to diversify one of its star products.
Honeybear Brands, based in Minnestoa, is already moving fruit into retail, while Spain’s CMR Group recently unloaded Europe’s first sea container of off-season Chilean cherries. Both companies report strong crop conditions in Chile and expect steady volumes through the holidays.
Honeybear Brands, reports the company is estimating shipments at approximately 125 to 150 loads.
Honeybear Brands continues to position itself as a key supplier for cherry winter demand, highlighting the fruit’s versatility and convenience. The company only imports Chilean fruit; believing it is a superior product to other growing regions in South America.
The company brings Chilean cherries into Washington state and Philadelphia, and says the dual-port model allows it to co-load imported cherries with its domestic apple programs.
The importer expects to expand its cherry program in the coming weeks with additional origins and other stone fruit items.
Chilean exporter Copefrut over 70 years of experience with cherries, apples, kiwifruit, and plums as strategic crops in Chile and foreign markets such as the US.
The company shipped over 3,000 tons of fruit to the US in 2024, with apples accounting for nearly half and cherries for 831 tons.
The firm works directly with some US and Canadian retailers, but that the majority of the crop enters the market through importers on both coasts. Copefrut’s plan in the mid- and long-term is to grow across all fronts, but apples are already ahead, with the company observing a 30 percent year-on-year increase in market share in 2024.
Pineapple has made Costa Rica the world’s leading pineapple exporter and a symbol of the country’s commitment to quality, innovation, and responsible production, according to the Trade & Investment Promotion Agency of Costa Rica (PROCOMER).
Between January and September 2025, pineapple exports reached $992 million, with more than 1.5 million tons shipped worldwide. The fruit accounts for 35 percent of Costa Rica’s agricultural exports and reaches 44 international markets, with the United States (54 percent), Belgium (12 percent), and Spain (8 percent) among the top destinations. Its strong presence in Europe reflects a growing preference for products that combine flavor, traceability, and wellbeing.
“Costa Rican pineapple today stands as a global benchmark for excellence. Its taste, quality, and innovation have positioned it as a favorite in the world’s leading markets. In an increasingly competitive environment, at the Trade & Investment Promotion Agency of Costa Rica we work to sustain and expand this leadership, opening new opportunities for our exporters and sharing with the world a product that embodies the best of Costa Rica: health, sustainability, and trust,” said Laura López, CEO of PROCOMER.
Costa Rican pineapples are cultivated mainly in the northern, southern, and Caribbean regions of the country, where tropical climates and fertile soils create ideal growing conditions. The industry generates over 81,000 direct and indirect jobs, stimulating rural economies and strengthening the livelihoods of agricultural communities united by a shared principle: producing with care and quality.
Westside Produce/Classic Fruit reports the U.S. domestic melon season winds down in October and Imports take over. Most melon consumption in the U.S. comes from domestic grown product, so imported supplies over the winter are typically lighter in volume.
It’s around this time that growers and shippers start gearing up to import the seasonal fruit from global suppliers such as Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
During the winter months, Westside Produce/Classic Fruit’s melons come from their offshore operations in Guatemala, the world’s main supplier.
This year, the company is reporting incoming fruit is looking great, and supply is sufficient for a steady flow that will last through the holiday season.
Growing conditions are noted to be better than the past few years, with far fewer major weather problems. Quality and yields should be very good.
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Southern Specialties, of Pompano Beach, FL is a grower, importer and distributor of specialty produce, and reports a strong year across the board as it heads into the final months of the year.
As the industry transitions into the fall season, the 35 year-old company once again turns attention to one of its key Florida-grown programs — its green bean operation.
The company’s green beans are marketed under its Southern Selects label, along with a number of private-label programs for major retailers and foodservice distributors. Southern Specialties sources and processes the beans through its Florida operations.
Besides Florida-grown green beans, Southern Specialties also uses its South Florida base as a critical gateway for imported counter-seasonal products.
This allows the company to complement Florida-grown crops with imported items such as asparagus, baby vegetables and berries from Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.
The company points out about 96 percent of the asparagus consumed in the U.S. comes from either Peru or Mexico and is one of the leading growers and importers of Peruvian asparagus, which enters the Port of Miami and is then distributed nationwide. Southern Specialties also grow and distribute asparagus from Mexico, as well as seasonally available Michigan asparagus.
Having the Port of Miami and Port Everglades nearby provides an important logistical advantage, especially during the busy fall and holiday months.
Both ports are strong receivers for product coming from throughout South and Central America, which can distributed along north-south and east–west corridors that allows the company to reach about 80 percent of the U.S. population within two days.
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Providing healthy, medically tailored meals or boxes of fresh produce along with nutrition counseling with a dietitian led to improved quality of life for people with heart failure compared to people who received dietary counseling without healthy food deliveries, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025 in New Orleans.
The meeting, Nov. 7-10, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.
“People with heart failure can often experience their condition worsening if they are not eating the right kind of food after they go home from the hospital,” said lead study author Ambarish Pandey, M.D., M.S., FAHA, an associate professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology and geriatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and medical director of the center’s heart failure with preserved ejection fraction program.
“People need nutritious meals that can provide them with the right nutrients for optimal health, including the appropriate calorie intake, the right amount of protein and limited sodium, sugar and fat.”
This randomized trial included 150 adults who were enrolled within two weeks of being discharged from the hospital for acute heart failure.
Researchers assigned participants to one of three groups: one group received medically tailored meals and dietary counseling with a dietitian; the second group received fresh produce boxes and dietary counseling; and the third group received dietary counseling without food delivery.
Participants receiving either meals or produce were also divided into two subgroups. One subgroup only received food if they picked up their medications from the pharmacy and attended their follow-up clinic appointments. The other subgroup received food whether or not they picked up their medications or attended appointments at the clinic. The meals and grocery food delivery programs lasted for 90 days.
The study’s key findings include:
- Participants in both food delivery groups (receiving either medically tailored meals or fresh produce boxes) reported a higher quality of life compared to those who received dietary guidance without food delivery, based on their responses in the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire.
- People in the conditional delivery groups (confirmed prescription pick-up) reported higher quality of life compared to people in the unconditional delivery group (no prescription pick-up required).
- Participants who received boxes of fresh produce and were able to use fresh produce in their own meals reported greater patient satisfaction than people who received prepared meals, based on their responses in the end-of-study survey.
- There were no significant differences in the number of hospital readmissions or emergency department visits between participants in the food delivery groups compared with people who did not receive food deliveries, or between the two groups receiving food. The study found a total of 32 hospital readmissions and emergency department visits for heart failure during the 90-day study, with 18% of participants having one or more readmissions or emergency visits.
- “These findings indicate the potential for healthy foods to affect outcomes and disease progression for people with chronic conditions like heart failure. If we can identify the best strategy for providing access to healthy food, this could be transformative for people with heart failure who are particularly vulnerable after hospitalization,” Pandey said. “I think healthy food can be as powerful as medications for people with chronic conditions like heart failure.”
- Access to healthy food is a social factor that contributes to overall health including cardiovascular disease risk and outcomes. Current evidence indicates that food insecurity, or limited access to enough food, and nutrition insecurity, or limited access to healthy foods, are both associated with more chronic health conditions and worse outcomes.
- According to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Statement, Systematic Review of “Food Is Medicine” Randomized Controlled Trials for Noncommunicable Disease in U.S., programs that incorporate healthy food and health care for people with or at high risk for chronic disease showed great potential in improving diet quality and food security.
California strawberry supplies remain extremely limited due to the rains and lower temperatures of the past two weeks. Mexican berries (into South Texas) and Florida-grown supplies are increasing; quality is improving. Expect prices to decline slowly over the next 10 days, according to a press release from Markon Cooperative of Salinas, CA.
Santa Maria and Oxnard, California
- Harvesting has been minimal this week as growers are allowing fruit to mature
- Winter production is expected to begin by late December
Mexico (into South Texas)
- Supplies are increasing
- Quality problems include white shoulders, skin bruising, and green tips
- This market is active
Florida
- Cooler weather has slowed growth, but supplies are slowly increasing
- Defects include white shoulders and green tips
- Size ranges from 17 to 22 berries per 8/1-pound clamshells
Baja, Mexico (into California)
- Shipments are beginning to cross after last week’s border blockades ended
- Rainy weather slowed production
- Quality ranges from fair to good
- Size ranges from 19-24 per 8/1-pound clamshells
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