These bright red berries continued to be a consumer favorite in 2021, finding favor as the No. 2 most popular fruit in Fresh Trends 2022 — a title typically held by apples.
11% of customers purchased apricots within the past 12 months. They were the No. 1 fruit that shoppers bought as organic periodically, with 50% of buyers saying they selected organic fruit at least some of the time.
As the nation continued to navigate a pandemic world, produce sales remained steady, with most consumers buying into healthy options as months of virus-induced worry stretched on.
While shoppers in most areas are back to shopping in stores, the lingering effects of the pandemic — and how they upended shopper habits — continue to shape the retail landscape.
It’s easy for consumers to be overwhelmed by choice at the supermarket. Organic versus conventional adds yet another choice, and more shoppers are choosing organic fruit.
Kale brings a steady following when it comes to organic purchases. The leafy greens were the No. 1 item that shoppers purchased as organic—both periodically and exclusively again this year.
Selections at the supermarket are sometimes based on a whim, but when you look at consumer data and track the trends, Organic Fresh Trends research shows that shoppers search for particular items in organic form.
With supply and demand stressors all over the board during the early months of the pandemic, grocers were forced to adapt quickly and skillfully to ever-changing conditions.
The average American is driving food sales. It used to be that chefs drove the trends in foods and creating demand for lesser-known commodities that would eventually translate into more sales in supermarkets.
Organics have been a part of the mainstream market for years now, and while the shoppers still see them as their own category, consumers tend to accept organically grown produce as an “added choice”.
From 1960 to the end of the decade, consumption of fresh vegetables dropped nearly 8 pounds per person, and per-capita consumption of fresh fruits fell more than 15 pounds.
This once rough-around-the-edges industry was, for centuries, a man’s world. It would take a particularly tenacious individual to change the status quo.
1894-1919: It took a world war to propel the U.S. produce industry into the modern world, one in which horsepower—the mechanized kind—meant product could be shipped nationwide.
In the 1940's, central markets represented the modern age of commerce. Terminal markets brought together food and people in a bustling hub of activity that represented progress.
Nearly 150 years ago, a railroad spike in Utah Territory linked the U.S. by rail from coast to coast. For the produce industry, railroads changed the name of the game.
Fear breeds change. For the produce industry, skepticism of environmental pollutants in the 1970s and full-on fear of pesticides in the 1980s would lead to one of the industry’s largest growth sectors ever.
U.S. consumers sampling grapes in December or a peach in January have Chile to thank. It’s hard to believe that the South American fresh produce powerhouse got its footing as an exporter to the U.S. just 30 years ago.
Interest in workers’ rights and global farming mean that consumers are getting vocal about a lot of things these days. Thankfully, the product offered by the fresh fruit and vegetable industry is a solid winner. Consumers continue to clamor for fresh produce, and they’re becoming more conscientious about how it’s produced and where it comes from.
Produce departments became fun, interactive places to shop during this generation. In the 1970s produce departments occupied about 3-4% of total supermarket floor space; by 1989 produce claimed 15% of the total store.
In part because of that struggle, Escobar and two of her colleagues in the industry launched the first worldwide networking event for women in fresh produce at Fruit Logistica in February 2019.
