Fresh Trends: Apricots most popular with this income bracket

The Packer’s Fresh Trends 2023 survey found that 11% of consumers said they purchased apricots in the past year, unchanged from 11% in Fresh Trends 2022.

Consumers with higher income were bigger apricot consumers, as 17% of those earning more than $100,000 a year reported apricot purchases, compared with just 6% earning less than $25,000 annually.

Apricot per capita availability is low and steady, with the USDA reporting fresh apricots retail per capita availability at 0.1 pounds in 2019, unchanged from 0.1 pounds in 2011.

Apricot prices were up in 2022. The average fob price for fresh apricots was $36.04 per carton in 2022, up 40% from $25.81 per carton in 2021.

Likewise, the retail average advertised price for apricots for 2022 was $1.81 per unit, up 12% from $1.61 per unit in 2021, according to the USDA.

The number of stores promoting apricots dipped from 45,534 in 2021 to 34,436 in 2022.

Younger consumers were more likely to purchase fresh apricots, according to Fresh Trends 2023.

For example, 14% of consumers aged 30-39 said they purchased apricots, compared with 6% for those consumers aged 60 and older.