You know that saying that, 'it's so good you should bottle it'? Well Shanley Farms felt that way about their fresh finger limes and are currently working on product development of finger lime processed pulp called Citron Caviar. Of course, packaged to look like regular caviar, the little pearls may look the part, but taste nothing like their 'fishy' twin.
"It is an exciting time in terms of promotion. We are putting the product in a jar, pre-squeezed, and we are currently testing the shelf life. We are working out how to extend that a bit beyond the four weeks that we have so far." said Sales and Marketing Director, Megan Shanley.
Despite the name, the popular finger limes are actually another type of citrus that isn’t even related to limes or lemons. They belong to the micro-citrus family and were discovered growing wild in the bush in Australia. The aboriginals are the ones who first called the fruit finger limes, because of its appearance and taste.
"We have been trying to get around the name 'finger lime' for the last 5 or 6 years with marketing, because finger is not a nice name. That's why we came up with the brand name Citriburst for the fresh finger limes, but it is still a work in progress because it is a mouthful. However, the name does say what it does, it gives you a burst of citrus flavour."
The company is establishing a processing line for the Citron Caviar and are aiming to launch this summer around August. The fresh finger limes come into production around June which is the time that Shanley Farms starts shipping. The 'limes' are grown in San Diego, Morrow Bay and in the central valley (Visalia) from June through February.
"We have had talks with food service, retailers and have even been introducing the Citron Caviar to food manufacturers in the salad dressing and yoghurt realm because they mesh so well with a wide variety of different types of food. This is why we will be offering the product in bulk packaging as well. We have access to 10,000 lbs a week, although we have yet to reach that amount."
"The product is being sent to high end retailers across the states, but the biggest growth has been in Europe this last year. Consumers are becoming more familiar with it there and are putting it on more and more menus. Chefs in the states have been hesitant to put it on their menus because many don’t know where to get it and in their mind, they have unpredictable seasons.
We introduced the finger limes to 30 stores in Europe and they were selling out faster than we could get the product, so we would like to introduce it on a larger scale this year. Just seeing that success there is huge because we haven’t seen that kind of success yet here in the states." concludes Megan.
Shanley Farms is in the process of becoming Global Gap certified, and will be certified organic this year.
