Who's buying cantaloupes in your stores?

Consumer survey data from The Packer’s Fresh Trends 2018 reveals cantaloupe is nearly twice as popular with women compared with men, and sales of the melon skew heavily toward older, high-income consumers.

According to Fresh Trends, 38% of all consumers indicated they purchased fresh cantaloupe in the past 12 months, down from 41% in the 2017 edition of Fresh Trends.

Demand differences

Fresh Trends 2018 indicated that 48% of females purchased fresh cantaloupe in the past year, compared with 28% of men. That is about the same as 2017, when 49% of women and 31% of men reported purchasing cantaloupe in the previous 12 months.

Based on level of income, cantaloupes were much more popular among high-income consumers.

Fresh Trends 2018 reports that 47% of consumers earning more than $100,000 reported buying cantaloupe, compared with 28% of consumers earning less than $25,000 per year.

That’s a slightly bigger gap in consumption than consumers reported in 2017.

For Fresh Trends 2017, 31% of consumers earning less than $25,000 reporting buying cantaloupe, compared with 44% earning more than $100,000 per year.

Sorted by generation, Fresh Trends 2018 statistics show big differences in demand based on age.

For consumers 59 and older, 57% reported fresh cantaloupe purchases, compared with 52% for consumers 50-58 years old, 49% for consumers 40-49 years old and just 23% for consumers 18-39 years old.

That is similar to the results of Fresh Trends 2017, when 54% of consumers 50-59 years old reported buying fresh cantaloupe and just 25% of consumers 18-39 years old reported buying fresh cantaloupe.