Posts Tagged “Red Blossom”
Gem-Pack Berries LLC of Irvine, CA and and Red Blossom Sales Inc. of Salinas, CA merged last October and combined the companies now has about 5,000 acres of strawberries in Florida, Mexico and California, as well as raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
Gem-Pack reports the expansion now allows year around shipments of berries with the ability to continue growing.
During the next three months, strawberry shipments will be heavy, creating more opportunities to work on branding with retailers.
The company is a major shipper of strawberries. It will increase strawberry volume by 15 percent this year. Although, it has a few new items.
It is shipping pineberries out of Florida, as well as new blackberry varieties from Mexico. The company also added raspberries to its product line.
The company also offers organic strawberries out of Baja, Mexico, and Watsonville, CA.
IRVINE, CA — GEM-Pack Berries, LLC and Red Blossom Sales, Inc. are combining forces.
GEM-Pack and Red Blossom build on more than 150 years of berry farming experience and collective acreage of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries in nine berry growing regions throughout California, Mexico, Florida and South America.
“We believe the industry is changing and proactive consolidation will benefit our customers with consistency of supply, balanced production curves, improved quality and increased order fill rates for the entire spectrum of berries and seasons,” Director of Sales, Paul Kawamura.
After four years of quietly collaborating on cultivation and sales partnerships, GEM-Pack and Red Blossom realized their common philosophies and shared production priorities created a productive and powerful team.
The consolidation will combine GEM-Pack’s partnership with Healthy Harvest in Watsonville, and GEM-Pack’s continued operations in Oxnard, Irvine, Baja and Central Mexico, with Red Blossom Farm’s acreage in Santa Maria.
Included in the consolidation will be Red Blossom’s production from the Parkesdale Group in Florida, as well as Red Blossom’s long term, exclusive partnership with Mainland Farms in Central Mexico. Mainland Farms has grown to be Central Mexico’s second largest strawberry shipper, while also offering a full-spectrum berry program with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.
GEM-Pack’s blueberry and bushberry programs in Mexico and South America will round out the company’s now year-round berry production.
Red Blossom and GEM-Pack complement each other’s strengths, adding deeper access to services in all departments. “As the overall produce industry continues to consolidate, we wanted to stay proactive and flexible. The merger facilitates continued growth and allows us to not only meet, but exceed customer expectations,” Mike Etchandy, CEO.
Some of the most reasonably price fruit items in local supermarkets now are strawberries, raspberries and grapes. Apples will be 
an interesting item to watch this fall.
Strawberries have been a frustrating item at best this summer. No one likes to waste their hard earned dollars on something that doesn’t have the taste or durability (shelf life). My purchase of strawsberries have been all over the board, ranging from good (not great) to very disappointing. I tend to think labels or brands can be a bit over rated. A top brand may or may not be better than a generic fruit or even a lesser known brand. However, this year I have found Discroll brand strawberries have been more consistently good. My big disappointement has been with the Red Blossom brand. More often than not, it has left me wishing I’d left it on the supermarket shelf.
The fall strawberry crop out of California is projected to stronger this year, and growers are predicting improved quality and flavor through August and September. I hope they are right!
Another favorite of mine are raspberries. Even with the Driscoll brand, “razz” is so perishable you really need to check the clamshell package for excessive moisture from the berries — and for mold. Still, no one does a better job with raspberries than Driscoll.
Table grapes from California’s San Joaquin Valley are available and a possible record setting crop is translating into attractive retail prices. Just bought some red grapes and the high sugar content makes them oh so sweet!
Finally, apple lovers are looking forward to the new crop which is now arriving at stores. On July 20 hail storms did some significant damage to some orchards in Washington state. Still, there will be plenty of apples because Washington was poised to have a historic crop. Even though the weather damage may reduce the crop by as much as 25 percent, it was so huge, that there will still be plenty of the fruit.
Something to keep in mind. Some orchards were hit much harder than others. To save as much of their crop as possible, you could be seeing some “high grade” bags of apples in your stores. This is simply a fancy name for some fruit that is less than fancy. It is apples that have some “dimples” from minor hits by hail. These dimples will turn brown and have a russetted look. They should have a lower price because they aren’t as “pretty,” although the eating quality should still be fine.