ORLANDO, Fla. — There was dancing, music and of course, cupcakes as Duda Farm Fresh Foods celebrated its 100th anniversary with a big booth blowout at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce and Floral Show.
Mark Bassetti, president and chief operating officer of Duda’s food and ag division, says the company wanted to mark the milestone with an upbeat, high-energy event.
“We got to come out of our comfort zone because it’s 100 years and less than a half-percent makes it 100 years,” he says. “We’re family-owned and still committed to the business. We got to celebrate for this family that’s been through a tough year in the industry.”
How Growers Are Adapting to Shifting Consumer Demands
To rebound after a tough summer, Bassetti says, “first and foremost, we have to create demand.”
Bassetti points to adaptability, innovation and strong values as what will help guide the company into the next 100 years. He acknowledges that the fresh produce category is down and consumers are concerned about the cost of goods and inflation.
As part of that innovation, Duda is exploring different pack sizes.
“We give them smaller pack sizes, so they feel good about what they bought,” he says. “Quality is everything. When money is tight, consumers won’t throw food away, so flavor and quality must be right.”
Jeff Church, chief operating officer of Church Brothers Farms, says it was hard to see social media galvanizing around messaging this summer.
“It would be nice if we could find a united message that we’d love to be a part of,” he says.
Tracy Carranza, vice president of retail sales at Church Brothers Farms, says she’s really focusing on understanding the consumer more as fresh produce sales are down.
“Continuing to bring products that are going to excite them back into the category,” Carranza says. “Looking at each segment and asking: ‘Is this stale? Has this been around for a long time? How can we bring new life into it?’ Overall, it’s just creating fun new products to get them excited.”
Carranza also says as sales are down, so is the share of stomach with the advent of GLP-1 weight loss medications.
“Your stomach size is smaller now, so how do you make sure they’re coming to us rather than to chips, cookies or crackers and ensuring that trust, food safety and everything consumers expect,” she says.
She also thinks now is a good time to test national brands instead of private-label products as the industry rebounds from the cyclospora outbreak: “Why not test national brands for a year to give transparency and then go back?”
Chris Drew, president and CEO with Ocean Mist Farms, says the bright spot is fresh produce is on a rebound.
“Perhaps it hasn’t quite gotten back to levels that it was back in the springtime,” he says. “However, we’re confident that consumers will come back and continue to eat fresh, healthy vegetables.”
Drew says Ocean Mist definitely sees the trend of convenience continuing with consumers.
“We want to have the recognition and the products that align with what the consumer demand is,” he says. “It’s a changing landscape; it always will be. We just need to do the best that we can to keep up with it and deliver the products that we’re known for.”
Split-District Planting to Mitigate Weather Losses
Bassetti says as the fresh produce industry rebuilds after a challenging summer, produce businesses are following El Niño closely.
“I follow weather every day, and it’s going to be a tough year somewhere in our business,” he says. “The way we used to plan for the worst was overplant. You can’t afford to do that now because of inflation, and category demand is down.”
Bassetti says Duda looks closely at the time of year to decide whether to add acreage in Florida in December and perhaps to reduce in Oxnard, Calif., or double up in Yuma, Ariz.
“We look at our numbers for the best opportunity for success,” he says. “For celery, we have tall proprietary varieties for celery sticks that are cost competitive. Instead of planting all acres for a week in one area, we split it across three districts.”
While that adds cost, Bassetti says Duda sees that as a deliberate and proactive step.
“It adds cost to manage and harvest in three places, but it helps if a rainstorm hits one district worse than another,” he says.
Church says, operationally, his family’s business takes the perspective of “just keep punching.”
“You just got to keep grinding and doing everything you can to control what you can control,” he says. “That’s the biggest thing for us — is control what we can control. We can’t control what happens elsewhere. We can’t control the weather.”
Church says it’s hard for his family’s business to substantially change operations because “El Niño occurs from central California all the way down to Mexico, and that’s all of our growing regions.”
Likely, the company will opt not to plant in low-lying areas susceptible to flooding, Church says.
“You don’t want to plant more than you’re going to sell because then that would be a very big loss,” he says. “Planting extra is not the solution for sure, because if it rains, you can’t harvest — no matter how many you have — for a day or two.”
Church says the team will watch the short-term forecast more often, but that’s also a key part of farming. Farming in an El Niño year is more intentional, but farming is about adapting to the weather conditions given.
“We’re constantly adapting to the weather and conditions and challenges thrown at us,” he says. “Whether it’s El Niño or not, we’re always trying to be ready. You kind of never know what’s coming.”
Drew echoes the sentiment of Bassetti and Church, saying “we always have to prepare for the weather; it’s what we do, it’s what we grow around Mother Nature.”
He says this includes planning ahead and making the best decisions with the knowledge at the time.
“Of course, we hear what the meteorologists are saying,” he says. “We see these hurricanes that seem to be one right after the other coming up the Pacific coast. We try to tier our planting schedule a little bit different so we don’t end up with too much in one spot and use the geographic locations that we have to break up any supply disruptions that may occur in the event of El Niño.”
But, Drew says, this is all part of farming.
“Every day is an adventure in agriculture,” he says. “That’s what we sign up to do, that’s what we love to do, and we adapt and we persevere and we keep moving forward.”
