Parma, Idaho, USA
May 20, 2010
Yuma-based Sandstone Marketing has increased production of its newest melon, Golden Kiss, tenfold this year in anticipation of high demand for this unique fresh market melon.
“Last year we literally couldn’t keep Golden Kiss in stock,” said Sandstone Marketing President Milas Russell, Jr. “It has the wow factor – its attractive exterior, small seed cavity, and brilliant orange flesh turns heads. Most people in the US buy produce with their eyes.”
According to Russell, retailers and consumers are initially drawn to the Golden Kiss’s unique golden netting and deep green sutures, but it is the flavor that turns them into true fans.
“Golden Kiss has wonderful flavor,” he said. “It’s perfectly crisp and sweeter than most other cantaloupe.”
Brian Bengard, a Produce Chain Specialist for Nunhems, the company that originally developed the variety under the name Sun Delicious, goes even further. “I never imagined enjoying the same vine-ripe quality from the retailer as I had out in the field,” said Bengard, “But thanks to the combination of Nunhems quality genetics and Sandstone Marketing’s fine-tuned growing and harvesting operations, that’s exactly the experience Golden Kiss delivers.”
Sandstone Marketing is the exclusive grower and marketer of Golden Kiss, creating the Kiss brand from the ground up as part of its own line of melons under the Kiss label. Key elements included logo and sticker development, but also display-ready packaging that make it easy for retailers to leverage the melon’s eye-drawing appearance, and extended shelf life, something that has not been commonly available in similar melons.
“Our customers are anxious to get their hands on Golden Kiss,” Russell said. “They can’t wait to get going with it.”
The first Golden Kiss melons are expected to come off the vines in late May or the first of June. From there, they are bound for primarily higher end, smaller retail chains. Most are expected to be size nine to size twelve.
“Golden Kiss fits solidly into our mantra: ‘where flavor comes first.’” Russell said. “There’s so much excitement about this variety, it is bound to be a huge success.”
Founded in 1979, family-owned and operated Sandstone Marketing is a producer and marketer of flavorful, high-quality melons. Sandstone is the only melon producer in the world that has designed their growing, harvesting and shipping practices to facilitate the fresh cut business and those customers who demand flavorful product. Today, Sandstone works hard to supply the demands of the fresh-cut industry.
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