FRESNO, CA – With summer at its midpoint, retailers and consumers are relishing melon season, and Dulcinea Farms/Pacific Trellis Fruit is primed to provide its customers with both fruit and tips to boost sales this season. I recently had an opportunity to catch up with Micki Dirtzu Charley, Director of Marketing, and find out what customers can expect in terms of pricing, sizing, and quality from the company’s summer offerings.
“We are currently harvesting in California out of the San Joaquin Valley through the end of September on all varieties. It’s been an interesting season with a period of extreme heat followed by a period of high humidity,” said Micki, noting that strong demand has kept pricing strong throughout the summer. “Watermelon pricing has remained strong all season. We have seen slightly smaller watermelons than normal given the extreme weather in California.”
Dulcinea is currently harvesting the following melon varieties:
- Dulcinea® PureHeart® Mini Seedless Watermelon
- Organic Dulcinea® PureHeart® Mini Seedless Watermelon
- Dulcinea®SunnyGold® Yellow Mini Seedless Watermelon
- Dulcinea® Tuscan-Style® Extra Sweet Cantaloupe
And Micki noted that the company’s continued partnership with Syngenta Seeds, LLC will allow for continued innovation and variety development, with a focus on flavor and overall quality.
“The recent extension of our agreement with Syngenta ensures Dulcinea will continue to offer our customers exclusive access to the best quality melons,” noted Micki.
Dulcinea is also hard at work tailoring its growing program to the needs of its customers and providing support for retailers looking to finish the season with a bang.
“We see retailers who execute seasonal melon display contests create a lot of excitement around melons to finish the summer strong,” said Micki. “We know each retail partner has a unique go to market strategy and we work with them directly to realize the greatest impact to drive sales in the category,” said Micki. “In addition, our increased focus on 'program plantings' is aimed to align supply of Dulcinea premium melons to ensure availability to meet our retail customers' growing demand.”
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