CHICAGO, IL – Hazel Technologies, a USDA-funded company providing new technologies to extend the quality shelf life of produce and fight food waste, announces partnership with Miami, FL-based online tropical and exotic fruit store, Tropical Fruit Box. The D2C box company makes fresh tropical and exotic fruits from around the world more accessible to consumers with freshness guaranteed delivery in the continental U.S.
Founded in 2019, Tropical Fruit Box is an e-commerce, home delivery extension of WP Produce. Since WP Produce’s founding, it’s has relied on Hazel to protect its produce throughout the supply chain. Today, Tropical Fruit Box specializes in tropical and exotic fruits and roots, delivered to consumers through “create your own”, curated or subscription boxes. Customers can choose from a wide array of exquisite, seasonal tropical produce including—but not limited to—Desbry tropical avocados, soursop, mangosteen and rare mango varieties, mamey, dragon fruit, rambutans, and lychees.
A women-powered business—a unique trait shared by Hazel, whose staff is 50% female—Tropical Fruit Box is taking the media by storm. The company has recently been featured in Forbes, Condé Nast Traveler, Fodor’s and the Chicago Tribune. Run by Desiree Morales, WP Produce’s Vice President, Tropical Fruit Box harnesses the power of family-owned businesses, not only in its leadership, but through its procurement of produce grown by multigenerational farms around the world.
The subscription box market has almost quadrupled its value in the last five years, going from an industry value of $2.6 billion in 2016 to a $10 billion value in 2019, showing the overwhelming consumer interest in the direct-to-customer industry even pre-pandemic. For food-based subscription boxes, the biggest quandary has always been how to get fresh inventory to customer’s doorsteps unscathed. Like its parent company WP Produce, Tropical Fruit Box is successfully using Hazel O to combat these concerns. Hazel O is Hazel Tech’s organic alternative to the company’s flagship technology Hazel 100TM used to protect conventional produce. The easy-to-use sachet delays the ripening process in fruits and vegetables, helping Tropical Fruit Box achieve their freshness guarantee for their customers.
“We trust Hazel with the quality of our Desbry tropical avocados, so it only makes sense that we trust our other tropical produce with the same product,” commented Desiree Morales, Founder of Tropical Fruit Box “Hazel O helps us achieve the quality and freshness guarantee promised to our customers at Tropical Fruit Box.”
“The subscription box industry is booming, especially when it comes to food and meal kit subscriptions,” said Aidan Mouat, CEO of Hazel Technologies. “With Tropical Fruit Box, we’re able to see how our technology can provide freshness extension solutions directly to consumers, both conventionally and organically.”
For more information about Tropical Fruit Box or to place an order call (786) 758-4787 or visit tropicalfruitbox.com.
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About Hazel Technologies, Inc.:
Hazel Technologies, Inc. is a USDA-funded startup company that develops new solutions to extend the quality shelf life of fresh produce and reduce food waste. Founded in 2015, Hazel Tech services over 150 of the world’s largest fresh produce packers, shippers, and retailers. Selected as a Finalist for Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas and winner of “Best Sustainable Packaging” at the 2020 World Food Innovation Awards, the company’s patent-pending technologies have been tested by top academic research programs. In 2020, Hazel products were used with over 3.2 billion pounds of fresh produce, preventing more than 270 million pounds from going to waste.
For more information, visit www.hazeltechnologies.com
About the Tropical Fruit Box:
Founded in 2019, Tropical Fruit Box is a women-powered small business that grows and procures tropical and exotic fruits and delivers them right to their customers’ doorsteps. From tree to table, all fruits and roots are grown at local family farms in the fertile soils of Florida, Central America, and the Caribbean as well as tropical regions of Asia and Africa. Fruit lovers can choose from subscription, single fruit boxes or curated variety boxes, the most popular Create your Own Tropical and Exotic Fruit boxes.
To learn more, visit tropicalfruitbox.com
