Schiller Park, IL – Sun Belle Inc., (www.sun-belle.com) a leading global provider of conventional and organic berries, said today it looks forward to expanding its relationships with a number of significant berry growers as a result of ending its relationship with the Giddings Group. In 2002, Janice Honigberg, president of Sun Belle Inc., teamed up with Julio Giddings to form Sun Belle Mexico S.A. de C.V. and Sun Belle Berries S.A. in Chile to bring Chilean and Mexican berries to worldwide markets during the winter months.
Sun Belle Inc.’s North American berry business has grown substantially during this time. The company attributes this achievement to its focus on marketing, careful handling and distribution, and bringing good varieties and new pack types to market. The objective has always been to provide the best value proposition to growers and consumers. With its four North American state-of-the-art distribution facilities, Sun Belle delivers the best quality berries on time and at competitive prices to retailers, club stores and food service customers – and ultimately the consumer.
“Giddings’ decision to pursue its dream of shipping its own label presents Sun Belle with a wonderful opportunity to bring more innovative programs and finer product direct to market from the grower,” said Honigberg. “Though Giddings has been an important source of berries to Sun Belle Inc. during the import season, we have increasingly worked directly with superb growers during this part of the year, and will continue to bring the highest quality berries to market.” Honigberg noted, “Sun Belle also works directly with top quality growers and packers throughout the domestic season, ensuring that we are able to meet customer demand 52 weeks of the year with the best berries under the sun.”
With more than 30 years’ experience marketing berries, its experienced team of skilled sales, quality control, food safety, logistics and distribution center personnel, and four distribution centers, Sun Belle is confident it will exceed both customers’ and growers’ expectations in the years ahead.
Sun Belle opened in 1986 importing fresh raspberries from Chile and the same year began distributing blackberries grown in the historic Virginia Tidewater. At the same time Sun Belle was a pioneer in greenhouse grown vegetables, importing produce from Israel, the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1992 Sun Belle introduced the first greenhouse grown tomato on the vine to the American market.
In the early 2000s Sun Belle championed the Tupy blackberry and developed the larger “club packs” that have resulted in skyrocketing blackberry consumption in the US, Canada and Europe. In 2007, Honigberg identified the Erika raspberry grown in the Italian Alps and brought it to the Americas. With its dedication to bringing better berries to market, Sun Belle has agreements with several university and independent breeding programs on new varieties of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Currently, Sun Belle is bringing to market more sustainably grown berries from Demeter-certified biodynamic farms and growers using regenerative organic processes.
Sun Belle Inc. was established in Washington, DC in 1986 by Janice Honigberg and is the exclusive marketer of the Sun Belle and Green Belle brands. The company distributes conventional and organic blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, golden berries and red currants; certified biodynamic organic cranberries and organic pomegranate arils; and greenhouse and specialty produce.
Sun Belle’s distribution centers are located in Miami, Florida; Jessup, Maryland; Schiller Park, Illinois; and Oxnard, California. For more information, please contact Janice Honigberg – janice@sun-belle.com or Ken Hopps – ken@sun-belle.com .
