Winter import cherry program continues expanding
While cherries have generally been thought of as a summer fruit, United Apple’s import program is making new crop cherries available this month.
“We have offered a Chilean cherry program for the past 13 years and demand from retailers keeps growing every season. This year we have broadened the supply base to keep pace with requests from our retailers, who look forward to offering the consumer favorite cherries to build traffic in the produce aisle and respond to increased activity with online shopping programs,” says Brett Baker, United Apple partner and executive vice-president.
“The initial challenge was to secure volume for our program that is competing in the global market where the vast majority of cherries are exported to Asia and the Middle East. Our approach has been to reach out to the strongest growers in Australia, Chile and New Zealand and let them know that we have relationships with leading retailers, who are i