One apple grower and marketer is looking forward to debuting a fresh look at this year’s Fresh Summit 2019 taking place in Anaheim, Ca. October 17-19.
“We’ll debut a brand new booth this year,” says Chuck Sinks of Sage Fruit Co. in Yakima, Wa. “It’s a completely different look for us as opposed to the last few years.”
Along with its new look, Sinks is also looking forward to a chance to connect with customers. “It’s just good to see all of them in one location. You take away weeks of travel by being able to see customers in one spot for a few days,” he says.
Increased supplies
At this year’s show, Sage will be discussing its line of products including apples, pears and cherries and notably will be able to share that its apple volume will be up this year. “The state of Washington will be up as well,” says Sinks. “We’ve grown our volume through increased tonnage within our own orchards and then it’s just going to be a record crop to boot. It was good growing conditions—some of the apples like the Royal Galas will be running smaller while other varieties will be running closer to the norm.”
Sage will also be discussing a number of its varieties including more specialty varieties such as the Smitten and the Pazazz. Sage Fruit has been helping to market these varieties the last few years.
Demand to be strong
And the large crop will be welcome news for retailers. “Everyone wants to get apples into the pipeline,” says Sinks. “They want all the new crop apples as soon as they’re harvested and unfortunately not all the varieties are harvested as of yet. But as they come off, the retailers are looking to get new crop apples in the stores.”
Harvest generally ends in the first part of November with the Pink Lady variety.
Sage will also be discussing some of its packaging options for apples. “We have some new 5 lb. pouch bags that are doing well. We came out with those at the end of the last crop and they’re really taking off,” he says. “And we’ve had a lot of interest as well in our 2 lb. organic bags. But overall we’ll just be promoting apples and get people to do lots of apple ads and contests to drive sales to their stores.”
For more information:
Chuck Sinks
Sage Fruit Co.
Tel: +1 (509) 248-5828
[email protected]
https://www.sagefruit.com/