REEDLEY, CA - From peaches to nectarines and apricots, the arrival of the summer season sends consumers into a stonefruit craze, and Mountain View Fruit Sales is answering the call. The grower is currently shipping high-quality early-season fruit, with volume continuing to ramp up by the week.

“We just finished our Krista early-season variety peaches, and color and flavor were excellent. We’ll be moving into June Time Peaches soon,” shared Kevin Steiner, Director of Business Development. “Nectarines are starting a little smaller than peaches, but quality is excellent, and we’ll now be moving into our Crossfire, Red Ryan, and Honey Lite varieties.”

Apricots are also in full swing, and plums and plumcots will start to harvest in early June.

“Volume on our early varieties peaked a little short of estimate, but we are still expecting a high-quality promotable crop,” Kevin notes. “We had a wet March, but our growers were still able to thin within 2-3 days of bloom, and April provided ideal growing conditions with warm sunny days and cooler nights.”

With multiple categories showing good quality and volume, retailers have various opportunities to merchandise stonefruit over the next few months.

“There are so many varieties available as we pick and pack through the season, and we’ve worked diligently to have varieties that are flavorful all summer and into the fall,” Kevin explains. “We’ll start our Summeripe program in early June, which will kick off our premium conditioned fruit that provides a ready-to-eat, flavorful consumer experience. After Labor Day, we’ll transition to our eye-catching Autumnripe label to alert customers that flavorful fruit is still available and help with late-season sales opportunities. Our goal is to create repeat purchases and capitalize on impulse purchases.”

To support this goal, Mountain View offers a comprehensive suite of merchandising solutions to amplify the stonefruit section.

“Our team at Mountain View is here to provide value to our customers in addition to shipping high-quality fruit. We provide merchandising tools and recommendations to help increase stonefruit consumption,” Kevin adds. “Stonefruit is one of the top impulse categories in the produce department. Create a destination and keep displays rotated frequently. Utilize Mountain View merchandising materials to help highlight the fruit and create eye-catching displays. Our merchandising bins are an excellent tool to help create a destination or even a secondary display location.”

Make the most of the summer stonefruit season with this top-quality portfolio and merchandising tools to match! Visit the brand's all-new website to learn more. And keep reading ANUK as we bring you the latest category updates and insights.