“We are doubling our grapefruit volume,” David Krause, President of Wonderful Citrus, said of the takeover of DNE World Fruit. “Previously, we just grew our grapefruit in Texas, but now we are also gaining product from Florida.” But the export position in Europe is not the most important reason for the California company to take over DNE World Fruit. “We are gaining many countries we can import from,” David added. Chile, South Africa, Spain, Peru and Australia are some of the other countries he mentioned.
These import flows are important to be able to supply citrus year-round. Although seasons will not disappear altogether, David has found that consumers want to buy citrus year-round. “They might not buy as much as during the season, but consumers want the product to be available. By importing, we can guarantee that availability.”
Potential in grapefruits
The citrus of Wonderful Citrus is cultivated in ‘the best soil.’ The farms can be found throughout the San Joaquin Valley of California, where the lemons, oranges and mandarins are cultivated. Lemons and limes are cultivated in Tabasco, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas in Mexico, and grapefruit is grown in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
David Krause, President of Wonderful Citrus.
The consumption of grapefruit has been declining for a few years, yet Wonderful Citrus sees potential in that market. “Consumption is decreasing, but production is also decreasing,” David says. “It is a wonderful product and we want to appeal to new consumers with our sweet red grapefruit.” That new target audience mostly consists of younger generations who barely know the grapefruit. “We have to teach consumers about the quality of the fruit.”
The Wonderful Citrus assortment is built around various brands. Those labels are specified at product level. Halos is a well-known easy-to-peel mandarin. Other examples include Sweet Scarletts for grapefruit, Satin Oranges for oranges, and Blue Goose Minneolas for minneola. “It is important that a brand is associated with a product,” David says. “All brands fall under the overarching Wonderful label.” The importance of brand recognition is apparent from the $30 million spent on the promotion of the Wonderful Halos brand last year.
Protectionism
That strategy appears to be bearing fruit. Wonderful Halos is one of the best-known brands among consumers. The most important market for these easy-peelers is the domestic market in the U.S. Export is becoming more important, but is still relatively small. “We see more opportunities for export,” according to David. For that, countries in the Pacific Rim are especially interesting. The focus is on South Korea, Japan and China.
The protectionist course the new government appears to uphold, is therefore inconvenient. “The trade agreements have been beneficial rather than damaging for us,” David explains. A levy on the import from Mexico could hinder trade, even more so because the countries have a close trade connection.
European competition and potential
It can be a challenge for the U.S. to compete with producing countries in and around Europe. However, that is different for limes. Last spring, the Mexican Gruppo B&S was added to Wonderful Citrus. With that acquisition, the company became the largest in the American lime market. The company sees the market for limes increasing in Europe, and wants to grow along with that demand. “We see much potential for that.”
“We want to be a one-stop-shop for citrus,” David continues. “We want to supply everything within the citrus segment.” In order to achieve that, the company combines the knowledge of a specialist with the wide assortment of a trade company. “We are a little bit of both. Our customers want us to meet their every citrus demand, and we therefore have a wide range. But we are also experts in easy-peelers, for example.”
More information:
Wonderful Citrus
contact.citrus@wonderful.com
www.wonderful.com