Fruit baskets are perfect for birthdays, get well, or holidays. They will delight all your recipient's senses of sight, smell, and taste. Nothing makes as dramatic a statement of how much you care then sending a gift basket overflowing with large, unblemished, ripe fruit, complimented with award winning wines, gourmet cheeses, and irresistible chocolate covered dried fruits and nuts.



On the other hand, there is also nothing more frustrating than sending a gift basket to someone and then receiving the feedback that the fruit was small, damaged, or over ripe. How do you navigate through all the gifting companies out there to make sure you get the most "bang for your buck"? After many years on the "inside" of the fruit basket industry I have written down a few helpful tips so you can make the best purchasing decision based on your gift basket giving needs and budget.

Who Should I Buy From?

There are a lot of companies to choose from, yet only a few providers. If you want the best price along with the best fruit, then your best bet is to buy directly from a manufacturer.

Many retailers drop ship their products from one of the few actual manufacturers out there, and jack up their prices in the process. Because of this, you will find a varying degree of prices from different companies t hat appear to have the exact same products, though they might be under different names.

Remember, they look the same across different companies because they most likely are the same. The only way to know for sure whether you are buying direct (and therefore getting the best price) is to call the company and ask them directly if they manufacturer their own gift baskets, or if they outsource it.

There's nothing to stop a company from lying to you, but this process should at the least narrow things down for you.

Fruit Basket Manufacturers

First and foremost, you need to know that that out of all the retail websites, there are very few companies in the United States that actually manufacturer and ship those fruit baskets. Manufacturers are companies, usually started by a handful of orchadists, that grow the apples, pears, and oranges, prepare the basket, and then ship the gift baskets from the orchard to your relative, employee, or friend.

Fruit also has different quality grades and sizes, and orchardists will "cherry pick" the largest and highest quality fruit for their gift baskets and sell the smaller and lower quality fruit to the grocery stores. To get gift baskets with the best fruit at the best prices, you want to buy your gifts directly from these fruit basket manufacturers.