Florida-based Seald Sweet is today kicking off its ninth Mexican table grape season with expectations for a profitable campaign.

"This Mexican harvest appears to have sufficient volumes giving us tremendous opportunity to supply our customer base with consistent promotable volume throughout the program,” Seald Sweet CEO Mayda Sotomayor said in a release.

"Consumers love grapes and we are pleased to be able to provide our retail partners with a high quality, great-tasting product,” she said.

Though it has been reported that some suppliers may be down in volume for this coming season, Seald Sweet has production in a variety of areas so the company does not expect any significant shortfall.

“Our growers are located in several areas throughout Mexico, so we will have product from beginning to end of this quickly moving deal,” Sotomayor said.

“We have some exciting new varieties that start early and go all the way to the end of the harvest.”

The group said the Mexican season had become very important to its table grape program. Starting with 50,000 boxes in 2009, the company has grown the program by 1,900%.

“Mexico is a cornerstone of our grape business and we believe a great deal in it –enough to invest with growers in Mexico and in hiring a seasoned professional to oversee this business sector,” Sotomayor said.

Seald Sweet also recently announced the hiring of Rob Anderholt as the company’s West Coast divisional sales manager. With more than 20 years experience in the grape category, Anderholt is tasked with overseeing the current season and future expansion of Seald Sweet’s grape program.

"Our customers can look forward to a terrific Mexican grape program because of our solid mix of colors as well as our quality growers,” Anderholt said.

"We have a full team in-country to watch over the packing and ensure we have the proper quality throughout the season. Our early sweet grapes coming out of our ranches south of Hermosillo will be key. We should see a solid supply of these green grapes over the first three weeks of May."

Seald Sweet claimed its program provided a good cross-section of grape varieties including all colors (red, green, blacks) plus red globes. The early sweets are one of the new varieties the company will market. And, with great anticipation, this season Seald Sweet will also offer its first volume of organic Flames.

“Aside from our early grapes, customers can take advantage of our mix of all colors and our organic product coming out of the major growing areas," Anderholt said.

"Our growers have taken care to secure the right bunches on their vines to give us excellent quality."

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