Company and Fruit Industry News

The purpose of this newsflash is to make you aware of what iTi Tropicals can do for you to take away some of your work load and uncertainties.

We are often asked if we are agents or brokers. Surprisingly, we are neither. Agents and brokers sell on behalf of domestic food manufacturers or importers. Agents and brokers do not take legal possession of the goods.

iTi Tropicals is an importer. We take legal title of the goods being imported.

What does an importer like iTi do for you? Among others:

1. We anticipate crop fluctuations due to weather, pest and other variables and take positions accordingly.
2. We finance from the moment the goods are loaded on the vessel and offer most of our customers 30 days payment terms starting only from the moment they pick it up at the warehouse in the USA, thus bridging often more than 60-90 days of financing
3. We arrange transport from Asia and South America to the USA
4. We maintain warehouse inventory throughout the USA
5. We travel continuously throughout the world to meet with farmers and processors allowing us to maintain strong bonds with the people who farm & process the products.
6. We liaise with FDA, DEA, Homeland Security which in recent years has added a new level of complexity to importing.
7. We are a C-TPAT certified importer. C-TPAT stands for Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and is a voluntary supply chain security program.

In short we take the hassle away from our customers. We purchase, ship, insure, import, clear and warehouse the goods. In January alone we already have made trips to Ecuador, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia to review crops and meet with local processors.

In addition to the typical tasks of an importer, iTi Tropicals provides some unique services. We have a PhD in food science on staff for Quality Control and Scientific Research and we have a Senior R&D Technologist on staff to help you with product formulation concepts. We realize that some of the types of fruits we sell are extremely exotic and often our customers request some assistance with ideas on how to utilize them in products from salad dressing, smoothies, sorbets & ice cream to fruit juice, sauces & soups. We can provide samples, not only of our ingredients, but when needed, samples of applications. We also have the ability to present seminars/demonstrations to educate customers about our products.

Click here for contact info for R&D and Quality Control, or visit our R&D Request Form.

We look forward to working with & for you!

Gert van Manen
President, iTi Tropicals, Inc.
June, 2010

At iTi Tropicals, the items we focus on are:

1. Banana (puree and clarified)
2. Coconut (sweetened and unsweetened cream/milk)
3. Coconut water
4. Guava (puree, concentrate, clarified)
5. Mango (puree, concentrate, clarified)
6. Passion fruit (NFC, concentrate, clarified)
7. Papaya (puree, concentrate)
8. Acerola (NFC, concentrate)
9. Açai (12%, 14% solids and clarified)
10. Pineapple (NFC and concentrate)
11. Other exotics such as Tamarind, Soursop, Lychee, Mangosteen, Lulo, Moraberry, Camu Camu , Cocoa Fruit and others.