REEDLEY, CA - The winter citrus season will soon come to a conclusion, but supplies are still on their way to store shelves. The Fruit World team is hard at work harvesting the last of its crops, and I got the chance to hear about it from Bianca Kaprielian, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, in a recent interview.

“We can’t believe how quickly this season is passing. We’ll be harvesting specialty citrus for another month and citrus staples into late April or early May,” Bianca told me. “Standout offerings include organic Tango and Murcott Mandarins—the flavor has been off-the-charts good this year—and conventional Gold Nugget mandarins, which we’re just starting to harvest. The Gold Nuggets are eating like candy with brix above 15! We even designed a variety-specific Gold Nugget bag to make it easy for retailers to offer another mandarin SKU and capture additional sales.”

For the organic and conventional Mandarins, Fruit World is packing into 2 lb, 3 lb, and 5 lb bags and 25 lb and 33 lb volume fill cartons. Final varieties of the season include Tango, Murcott, Klondike, and Gold Nugget. According to Bianca, they taste great and look even better in the newly rebranded bags. They also pack stem and leaf Mandarins, with the season wrapping up by early May.

Fruit World’s organic grapefruits are deliciously tart this season. The supplier is reporting a good supply of 32–48 ct. Buyers, if you are looking for a last-minute hot buy or promotions, connect with Fruit World about volume discounts on organic grapefruit, packed in 40 lb volume fill or in 10/4 lb bags. Fruit World’s District 3 Minneola supply has finished up and harvest is underway in District 1, shipping out of Reedley, California. Bianca highly suggests that retailers order them soon, as they have a delicious sweet-tart flavor, and supply will wrap up quickly. The same goes for Blood oranges—they’ll only be around for a couple more weeks.

“Even though we’re in our final push of the winter citrus season, California citrus season really never ends because of our diverse growing regions throughout the state. We offer year-round organic lemon and orange programs, so we can fill your category with the right citrus at the right time,” Bianca explained. “We are very particular about picking our citrus to the depth of flavor, and then we match harvests with specific buyers based on their consumer preference for taste, size, and value. We like to stretch the Navel crop out as far into May as possible because the sugars have had all that time on the tree to develop and the fruit is super sweet and tasty. Then we seamlessly move into Valencias once they have built up enough sugar.”

Fruit World specializes in delivering the most flavorful fruit in California, including organic and conventional citrus, grapes, stonefruit, and more. They curate large—and small-scale citrus programs across North America.

“We focus on providing our customers with peak-season produce and an extremely high level of customer service and transparency. Our growing operations allow us to reliably supply national supermarkets, independent chains, and mom-and-pop grocers, all while staying rooted in our family values,” shared Bianca.

To contact Fruit World's sales team and set up your spring citrus promotions, click here.

And keep reading ANUK for more fresh produce news.