VALENCIA, CA - Traditionally given as a gift to symbolize good luck and prosperity in the future, citrus has long been as a prized staple of Chinese and Lunar New Year festivities. To keep the category at the forefront of celebrations both domestic and international, Sunkist Growers created a limited-edition, Year of the Dragon-themed 10 lb carton.

“According to Circana, season-to-date citrus is trending ahead of last year, outpacing total produce and fruit,” says Cassie Howard, Senior Director of Category Management and Marketing. “As we’ve seen the building up of consumer demand toward specialties, the Lunar New Year shopping season is a great event for retailers to promote in-stores to keep citrus top of mind.”

Sunkist's limited-edition Year of the Dragon cartons and matching merchandising program feature an authentic Chinese design with bold, custom illustrations printed with a focus on red and gold colors, a press release explained. The merchandising program features interactive point-of-sale materials with scannable QR codes providing real-time recipe inspiration to shoppers to further incentivize purchases.

With the growth of this program, Sunkist continues to expand its offerings to keep up with demand. The 10 lb cartons can hold either Navel oranges or Cara Cara oranges—new this year is exclusive packaging for select retailers.

The display bins continue to offer a terrific way to highlight any in-season conventional or organic variety, including Pummelos, Blood oranges, lemons, California Mandarins, Minneola tangelos, and grapefruit.

“The fruit this year is also producing some of the largest sizes we have seen in recent memory,” adds Howard. “As more consumers turn to citrus to help them celebrate the Lunar New Year, retailers should capitalize on our interactive display bins to create bountiful opportunities to provide great value to their customers with big fruit offerings.”

In addition to Lunar New Year-themed merchandising bins, Sunkist has new bin headers and header cards to promote flavor information and nutritional benefits, as well as trending recipes.

So many ways that the cooperative continues to make the citrus category shine!