Produce suppliers reach out to kids

As pressure mounts for parents to provide their families with healthful eating options, suppliers increasingly are focusing on innovative products, packaging, programs and promotions to persuade kids to prompt their moms and dads to purchase more produce.

Kid-size fruit, eye-catching in-store displays and even colorful stickers all have been employed to attract the younger set.

You can’t beat Lil Snappers fruit as a healthful treat for youngsters, said Brianna Shales, communications manager for Stemilt Growers Inc., Wenatchee, Wash.

“Lil Snappers features a wide variety of kid-sized fruits for apples and pears,” she said.

“We have 3-pound pouch bags for apples, pears and organic apples,” she said.

Organic pears come in 2-pound pouch bags.

Chelan Fresh Marketing, Chelan, Wash., helps retailers attract attention to its Rockit brand apples with a wing stack display — three Euro boxes, each containing six “shuttles” filled with apples, all covered by a sleeve, said Mac Riggan, director of marketing.

“You take it off of the boxes, set it down on the ground, and it actually becomes a stand to lift the apples off the floor about 24 inches,” Riggan said.

“It creates its own display right there in the store.”

Los Angeles-based The Wonderful Co. will have “fun, engaging stickers” on its Halos brand mandarins, said Adam Cooper, vice president of marketing.

Last year, letters of the alphabet were attached to Halos, enabling kids to spell out different words, he said.

“We’re really making eating healthy fun,” Cooper said. “We encourage kids to play with their food.”

Parents are choosing more Halos for special kids’ events, like games and picnics, he said, so he encourages retailers to offer 5-pound packages for big occasions and 3-pound packages for everyday use.

Wonderful also offers 100-calorie packs of Pom Poms pomegranate arils.

“It’s a win for parent encouraging kids to eat healthier,” Cooper said.

Naturipe Farms LLC, Estero, Fla., has created a Naturipe Snacks line that is great for parents looking for healthful, convenient products, said Jill Overdorf, Naturipe’s director of product development for value-added fresh.

“We offer perfectly portioned snack boxes that have fresh and fun combinations of fruit, cheese and nuts,” she said.

“We also offer fresh fruit cups with a spork in the packaging, and our Naturipe Bites in blueberry and grape combinations,” she said.

Dole Food Co., Westlake Village, Calif., plans to use Disney characters on stickers on Dole bananas, on pineapple hang tags and on packages of Dole vegetables and salads as a key part of its fall marketing program, said Bil Goldfield, director of corporate communications.

“We know that kids respond to the visual of these characters — we have seen it on snack foods and cereals for decades — and we are confident that seeing them on produce stickers, tags and packaging will help parents encourage their kids to eat more fruits and vegetables,” he said.

Los Angeles-based The Giumarra Cos. has developed Nature’s Partner brand Bright Bites for its mandarins “as a fun, playful brand identity that appeals to kids and parents alike,” said Megan Schulz, director of communications.

The fruit can be packed in 3- or 5-pound bags with the Bright Bites identity, she said.