Posts Tagged “Divine Flavor”
Divine Flavor LLC of Nogales, AZ is ramping up Southern hemisphere grape volume from Peru, Chile, and South Africa.
The grower-distributor anticipates a strong second-half of the season on premium red and white seedless grapes coming from those regions with their new vineyards in Jalisco, Mexico at Grupo Alta.
The company report the next 6-8 weeks should provide plenty of volume for premium red seedless.
White seedless grape supplies will also continue steadily in decent volumes of Sweet Globe and Autumn Crisp coming from Peru, Chile, and South Africa.
Divine Flavor has been involved with the import deal for the past five years and the company has established strong roots with growers such as Ecosac located in Puira, Peru and Santa Elena and Unifrutti who have growing regions throughout Chile.
The different growing areas complement each other to provide grapes from November through July.
The month of March will see more shipments of specialty varieties such as the company’s Jellyberries and Candy Hearts, followed by the Chilean Muscat Beauty. Divine Flavor will transition to their Jalisco season at Grupo Alta the first weeks of April starting with Timpson, followed by Sweet Globe and Autumn Crisp, all premium white seedless, and finally in this region; Cotton Candy.
The Peruvian table grape season is being wrapped up by Divine Flavor of Nogales, AZ as the importer switches to Chilean grapes.
Divine Flavor’s Chilean grape program lasts into April, when production switches to Jalisco, Mexico.
Early varieties from Chile include thompsons, sugraones, sweet globes and other greens.
Chile exported about 50 million boxes last year, about 60 percent of which went to the U.S.
The Chilean grape season could be down as much as 15 percent this season, in good part due to drought conditions. Still, the company sees decent volumes in the coming months.
“This year, we’ll have more Muscat Beauty, which is a great tasting hybrid,” Gonzalo Mery of Santa Elena, a Chilean grower that supplies Divine Flavor, said in a press release. “We’ve also planted more autumn crisp and sweet globe, both being specialty and high-flavored greens.”
Peruvian growers for Divine Flavor have also planted more highly-flavored varieties. Agricola Don Ricardo plans to plant more Jellyberries and Gummyberries.
“This movement and our decisions are being backed up by data and testing blocks trials,” Arturo Hoffmann, commercial manager for Agricola Don Ricardo, said in the release. “Next season, we anticipate having 85 percent of our production to be of the specialty, high-flavored varieties.”