Trinity Fruit Co. offers a wide range of pomegranate products — whole, fresh, frozen — and has been growing the pomegranate category every year. For instance, its newest product is Dried Pomegranate Arils.
“The wonderful thing about our pomegranate program, is we offer this amazing product year-round,” said Angela Hernandez, director of marketing for the Fresno, CA based company. “When the domestic season is finished, we make a seamless transition to import pomegranates, offering consumers these delicious gems 365 days per year.”
Pomegranates are in the company’s DNA.
“Over 20 years ago, Trinity Fruit did the first Pomegranate Aril program in the industry,” Hernandez said. “In those days, the fruit was deseeded by hand. That program did not work so we went back to the drawing board and now we have become a leader with the latest technology.”
Along with keeping up with technology, Trinity Fruit believes the quality, quantity and variety is what it takes to be successful within the segment.
“Offering fantastic quality, delicious tasting fruit, as well as being able to provide volume, and a wide range of variety for the many different types of shoppers is key,” Hernandez said. “We offer different pack styles as well as different ways to consume pomegranates — from whole all the way to dried.”
The upcoming crop is on track for a similar year as last year for the variety that starts in October.
“Our early-season proprietary varieties start around Sept. 8, and due to new plantings, we could see up to 10 percent more of our early season fruit,” Hernandez said. “Our early-season fruit provides retailers with incremental sales opportunities as well as our year-round supply of Arils.”
Since the pandemic hit, Trinity Fruit has been able to continue business as usual thanks to its robust food safety plan that was implemented years ago and includes a risk-based cleaning and sanitation program.
“The program had already been implemented into areas such as office spaces, restrooms, and general meeting areas to help minimize the spread of contagious viruses and now including COVID-19,” Hernandez said. “For obvious reasons, packaged fruit is in more demand because of COVID-19. We expect this trend to continue and be more of a normal pack. Our pomegranates will be available in consumer packs, clamshells, bags as well as loose fruit.”
The company will soon launch its new resealable lid on its 4.4- and eight-ounce aril cups.
“This will help reduce contamination in the recycling stream and eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging,” Hernandez said.
When it comes to its retail partners, Trinity Fruit is a big believer in display bins as well as large displays to help sell more in the pomegranate category.
“Our high-graphic bins explain with pictures how to cut open a pomegranate, which has been the biggest obstacle for retailers to attract new pomegranate customers and explains why the aril demand continues to grow each year,” Hernandez said.
