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volumes remain fairly steady from August into October,” she says. “Newer varieties are both higher yielding and produce high-quality fruit during the fall.”
POMEGRANATES AND CITRUS
ere is perhaps no name in the world of produce more synonymous with pomegranates than POM Wonderful, headquartered in Los Angeles and a company that further strength- ened its market leadership in 2017 with the acquisition of another key player, Ruby Fresh.
Charlotte Mostaed, POM Wonderful’s director of marketing, says the company grows between 150,000-180,000 metric tons (MT) of pomegranates depending on the season and weather.
“As our trees continue to mature, yields and tonnage will continue to increase over time as well,” says Mostaed. “Peak season for POM Wonderful variety pomegranates starts in October and goes through January, with our biggest peaks taking place during the holiday season.”
She says when pomegranates hit the shelves in October, there is a “strong resurgence of consumer love” for the product that is especially tied to the holidays.
Mostaed recommends retailers use POM Wonderful’s display bins to create a point of interruption that has been identi ed as the top trigger for people to trial pomegranates, often leading to repeat purchases throughout the season.
She notes there have been robust tailwinds for the arils category over the past ve years as consumers seek healthier snacking options.
“Since 2014, Arils category sales have grown an average of 13 percent per year,” she says.
Another iconic California fruit whose season starts in the fall is citrus, which is a prime example of an industry that has pushed the bar higher in pursuit of quality.
Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, CA, mentions the sector has self-imposed standards for maturity to create value for consumers and growers.
“Poor avor is not in the vernacular of the California citrus industry,” he says. “ is change was made to o set challenges from a burgeoning and now mature Mandarin industry that could have cannibalized shelf space from the Navel orange.”
“ e combination of a new, smaller and easier-to-peel piece of citrus and a traditional orange with greater avor stimulated a record
number of years in terms of volume moved and revenue received.”
Although there still will be summer oranges available in the fall and the lemon harvest will have commenced in Imperial County, CA, and in Arizona in September, the new citrus season traditionally begins in October.
“ e goal is to have excellent quality avail- able and promotions beginning for the anks- giving holiday,” says Nelsen. “Christmas brings major advertising and millions of cartons into the market across the country.”
e citrus industry will, however, need to get over the e ects of o shore product “lingering in the market longer than any time in history” in 2018-19, which left a bad taste with consumers and marketers alike.
“ is fall you’ll see a more aggressive start by brands to di erentiate the California citrus from that being sold by others,” he says. “Somehow, the California industry with higher costs and stronger wage rates needs to stimulate demand better.”
“We will di erentiate the source of the citrus. We will promote the consistency of higher quality fruit. We will inundate the consumer with promotions and marketing programs,” says Nelsen. pb
42 / AUGUST 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS