Sage Fruit is proud to be one of the highest quality shippers in Washington. Our growers are held to some of the highest standards in the state across all three categories including apples, pears and cherries. Beautiful high colored fruit sells and drives sales – your displays can be filled with high colored, beautiful, delicious apples, pears, and cherries from Sage Fruit Co. This will increase traffic through your department, increase sales, profitability, and improve your produce category image.
Sage Fruit Co. prides itself as a quality marketer of Cherries, Pears and Apples. It is our goal to provide “An Exceptional Eating Experience” to the consumer. This is done through a very rigorous quality control program that starts in the field and continues through final shipment. Communication is an essential ingredient to the success of the Sage Fruit Co. Frequent meetings with field staff, quality control and warehouse personnel provide the framework for ensuring that fruit is harvested, stored and packed appropriately.
Pre-harvest
Following fruit maturity during the growing season is an excellent way to begin a Quality Control program. Field staff pulls weekly samples and using industry maturity indices, the fruit is analyzed and results recorded and harvest planned.
Harvest
Receiving samples are taken from loads of fruit as it arrives at the warehouses. Fruit again is analyzed for size, color and condition to ensure it is stored properly.
Storage
Monthly storage room samples are taken on all fruit using same industry indices to make sure that the fruit is maintaining its peak condition.
Packing Line
Packing lines are monitored daily to ensure that packaged fruit will meet all of our Sage quality standards. This information is recorded and entered into a data base to be used by our sales team. It is this that helps set us apart from others, allowing us to deliver a quality box of fruit to the market.
Packed Fruit
Packed fruit inventory is monitored on a regular basis to ensue timely turnover and know that our product is maintaining the quality standards that we have set forth.
Shipping
Our final check is at the time of shipment. If a problem is found in fruit that is shipping, the fruit will be replaced for that order or repacked to meet quality control standards.
Technology
Sage Fruit Co. is using some of the newest and finest equipment available to be sure we are supplying a quality product. NIR technology allows us to ensure consumer expectations of premium eating quality produce. It allows us to better monitor fruit for condition problems and let us know that we are truly providing “An Exceptional Eating Experience”. Sage Fruit Co. packing facilities also employ state of the art packing and storage equipment to safely and gently handle the fruit. The equipment is cleaned daily and properly maintained to protect their investments. We are proud of our state of the art equipment.