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Lychees often produce new fans after the first taste.
tries in 2013.
“For mangos, the category predominates in
the first nine months of the year,” says Kellee Harris, Giumarra Companies’ regional business development director. “Given that the Austra- lian varieties are available primarily in the fourth quarter, this gives American consumers the ability to have high quality mangos year- round.”
“The fruit is generally large and dense with smaller seeds, giving consumers a generous amount of edible fruit per piece. Consumers often compare the sweet taste as being similar to a peach.”
Harris notes year-over-year growth in the deal involving heavily supported demo programs with upscale retailers who pride themselves on high quality. She also suggests cross-merchandising with Australian wines, cheeses and other gourmet specialty items.
“Our combined investment in this program has taught consumers Australian mangos offer a unique, flavorful eating experience, and they are only available for a limited time,” she says.
Diane Phan, acting trade manager at Australian grower industry group Hort Inno- vation, based in Sydney, says her country’s exporters need to be extremely strategic with their market entry plans and clearly position themselves to appeal to target consumers in a noisy marketplace.
This has been the approach of lychee ship- pers, who had a U.S. protocol approved in 2012 but only started the first pilot export program for the 2015-16 season.
Daniel Newport, account manager at Pinnacle Fresh USA in Kingsburg, CA, says customers offered glowing praise of Austra- lian lychees this past season, with an approach targeting independent grocers with Asian demographics.
“The external color on the skin, the nice red blush that Australian lychees can get, is a
lot better than the South African quality,” says Newport. “South African lychees tend to be paler on the exterior color so less attractive on the eye.
This crop is also exported over the North American winter, but with the right conditions it has the potential to be a much longer deal,
according to Jill Houser, executive director of the Australian Lychee Growers Association (ALGA) in Mooloolah.
“It’s still a small volume compared to what could get over there,” she says, highlighting her industry has one of the longest lychee growing seasons in the world, lasting from late October to early March.
The main limitation is technical, as there are certain crop protection products used by growers that the United States does not yet recognize, and therefore separate U.S.-oriented blocks are needed for the program.
Pinnacle Fresh also ran a cherry import program from Tasmania and New Zealand that finished in early February; a small trade that is growing steadily even though the price is often double that of the South American competition.
“Flavor is the point of difference,” says Newport. “That’s the strategy we peddle in the States, and we tend to focus on opremium retailers, premium areas of the country.” pb
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