“We have a good sized program planned,” said Jordan Bain from the company. “We will send more volume than last year as we have had a lot of interest from both retailers and wholesalers in the States. We attended the PMA Fresh Summit last year and were surprised by the variety of retailers who were interested, there was interest from retailers which we had not even considered.”

Jordan explains that the opportunities in the US market come from the great marketing done by the citrus community there, blood oranges and Cara Caras are well known to consumers.

The Dracula brand is especially popular at Halloween and is marketed as a healthy option for trick or treating, recipes for ‘healthy’ treats such as chocolate covered orange slices are available at the point of sale. The easy peel Alfoura is marketed as part of the baby Dracula range.

“The Dracula brand is also popular in the Australian domestic market, but retailers here don’t do quite as well as the Americans at marketing brands in the fresh produce sector. We are starting programs with Aldi and Costco this season and we are very interested to see how much influence the brand has on citrus sales.”

Jordan thinks that if individual brands were promoted more it would help increase consumption across the sector, “If you look at the how the Asian market responds to branding you can see there is a definite value, also the younger generation around the world go for brands and if we get them to eat more fresh produce then it’s a win-win situation.”

Pinnacle will export the Dracula citrus range to Taiwan for the time this season. They will be sold by Carrefour. Taiwan, like other Asian countries are influenced by western culture and are big on branded products.

Talking about the on-going trade wars Jordan said they can have a big and long-lasting effect on growers, ”15 - 20 years ago in Australia citrus growers were pulling out orchards and farms were being sold because of over production as there was little to no export market back then, but with the opening up of the Chinese market there has been an unbelievable amount growth in a very short time but if trade relations are not maintained things could go bad very quickly. We would still export but if tariffs come inn to play then export volumes would fall dramatically. This is why we also need to grow the domestic market in all categories.

The Pinnacle Fresh team will once again exhibit @ PMA Fresh Summit 2019. The theme for 2019 imagines a world where indulgence is Blissfully Sweet, and pleasure is Wickedly Healthy. Our Dracula Citrus and Cherry Bliss brands deliver all that and more. Come past booth 996 and try our Naughty Dracula Blood Margarita! We look forward to connecting with you @ Fresh Summit 2019