X_PMG_Dates

Who is buying dates?

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:16:42 GMT

Twenty-five percent of Fresh Trends 2020 respondents* reported buying dates in the past 12 months, with 15% saying they also purchased value-added products such as chopped dates or date rolls.

Shoppers age 18-39 were by far the most likely to make a purchase, and twice as likely as those 40 and younger. Medjool dates were the most popular variety, although nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they didn’t know what variety they had purchased.

*683 shoppers were questioned about date and nut purchases separately from the main Fresh Trends 2020 survey.

Dates take off this spring

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:17:40 GMT

Date growers in California’s Coachella Valley had a wild ride this spring.

They anticipated an upswing in sales as Ramadan, a month of daytime fasting for Muslims, got underway on April 23, since observers traditionally break their fast in the evening by consuming dates.

But they were taken by surprise when dates became one of the commodities that got swept off supermarket shelves when consumers went into panic buying mode as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To see more Nuts, Dates & Dried Fruit news, click here.

“This is a busy time for us,” said DJ Ryan, sales and operations manager for Coachella, Calif.-based SunDate .

“It’s the biggest pull of the year for medjool dates.”

“You get a pretty good push around Ramadan time,” agreed John Burton, general manager of sales and cooler for Peter Rabbit Farms in Coachella.

But after the panic buying ended and Ramadan observers had completed their pre-Ramadan purchases, sales dropped.

“We’ve seen it go up and down,” Ryan said.

Date suppliers try to pack ahead of time to be prepared for Ramadan, he said.

“This year we had the curveball of COVID-19, which changed everything.”

Dates are an ideal option for “sheltering in place” because they are nutritious and have a long shelf life, said Luke Fountain, sales representative for Bakersfield, Calif.-based Atlas Produce and Distribution Inc., which grows dates in the Coachella Valley.

“Dates are so nutrient dense that I think it was a really easy choice for people to make this year,” he said.

Ryan estimated that 40% of SunDate’s date sales are tied to Ramadan, but he said that even with the COVID-19 surge, the company does not face a product shortage.

Related content: Sun Date increases organic production

“We have plenty of stock on hand to handle the demand we’re dealing with right now,” he said in late April.

Medjool and deglet noor dates are the major date varieties.

Medjools, usually sold in tubs, are the bestsellers for Ramadan, Ryan said.

Pitted deglet noors are sold in bags at supermarkets or for industrial use in products like cereal and energy bars.

SunDate harvests medjools in August and September and deglet noors in October.

They are sold from storage throughout the year.

Atlas is hopeful that working with retailers to promote date consumption among kids will help boost sales, Fountain said.

“If kids like them, that encourages adults and families to purchase them,” he said.

The company’s Fresh Energy brand dates are a good choice for consumers looking for an alternative to “energy drinks and energy bars that are full of chemicals and sugars that aren’t natural,” he said.

The company has launched a 2-pound pitted deglet noor standup pouch, he said.

Burton of Peter Rabbit Farms sees young consumers as a budding market for dates.

“If we continue to make inroads with the younger population, I think we will have people enjoying medjool dates for years to come,” he said.

Burton sees potential for a good 2020-21 crop come late summer as long as the weather stays dry during July and August.

“They like hot, dry weather,” he said.

Good year for dates, marketers say

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:37:01 GMT

Another good year should be on tap for the date industry following the 2019-20 season that was marked by a significant sales uptick resulting at least in part from COVID-19.

“We saw some of our biggest weeks in sales when the stay-at-home order happened,” said Garret Powell, sales and operations associate for Peter Rabbit Farms , Coachella, Calif.

Dates are not actually a dried fruit, Powell said, but they’re like a dried fruit.

Consumers found them to be a good item to pick up when they were cutting back on trips to the grocery store and looking for healthful snack options.

The sales boost in early spring lasted up to a month before movement returned to normal, he said.

Online sales also were strong at that time, he said.

Dates are harvested in late summer and early fall in California’s Coachella Valley, where 98% of U.S. date production is located, and they’re shipped out of storage year-round.

Powell expects a good crop when Peter Rabbit Farms starts its next harvest in September.

“We’ve had lots of sunshine, which is ideal for date palms,” he said.

The company’s volume should be similar to last year.

Date production has been on the rise, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

U.S. growers produced 43,450 tons in 2019, up from 28,990 in 2018.

Most date consumption is either fresh, through retail sales, or in manufactured items like energy bars, said Albert Keck, president of Hadley Date Gardens, Thermal, Calif.

The company will kick off its 2020 harvest in late August or early September with medjools, Keck said.

He anticipates “average to average light” volume.

“The crop is looking pretty decent,” he said in late June. “The dates are sizing up well. The weather has been beautiful.”

But working through the COVID-19 crisis with its various safety protocols has been a challenge, he said.

“We’ve been fortunate so far, but it sure is a burden operating under these conditions.”

David Baxter, brand manager for Bard Valley Date Growers Association , Bard, Calif., which markets medjool dates under the Natural Delights label, also is optimistic about the coming harvest.

“Everything looks great,” he said. “We haven’t had any negative issues.”

Yields in 2020 likely will be similar to last year, but he said it was too soon to know for sure.

Coachella-based Woodspur Farms LLC had a better-than-average year, said Tony Somohano, director of wholesale sales.

Online business “just absolutely caught on fire,” he said.

The company sells to a number of wholesalers who offer dates online, and Woodspur Farms has its own online store, Somohano said.

It’s hard to know whether the sales spike was COVID-19 related, tied in with the Muslim month-long observance of Ramadan or a combination of both, he said.

Somohano said he expects the new crop volume to surpass this year’s.

The company had to implement new protocols in harvesting and tweak the way workers did their jobs because of the coronavirus, he said.

“Everybody is doing what they need to do,” he said, including practicing social distancing and washing their hands at wash stations.

“We have to adjust to the times and the situation the pandemic has brought on us,” he said.

Woodspur Farms offers 16 kinds of dates and grows in the Coachella Valley, Blythe, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz.

Related:
Sun Date increases organic production
Imperial Date Gardens’ Isabel Nuñez remembered
Dates take off this spring
Woodspur Farms has record date crop

Atlas Produce boosts organic dates

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:18:23 GMT

The Fresh Energy brand from Bakersfield, Calif.-based Atlas Produce and Distribution Inc . now offers an organic option for all of its varieties, said sales representative Luke Fountain.

“We now also offer a 12-unit ready-display shipper — in addition to our 24-unit display — that gives the retailer the opportunity to always have full displays of our product, which increases sales,” he said.

Atlas Produce also has some new plantings and expects to see a 20% growth in volume, Fountain said.

“With the Fresh Energy brand, we have seen a 30% increase this past year,” he added.

Related content:
Dried fruit trending among health-minded consumers
Strong season ahead for nuts, prunes and dates
California almond acreage continues to rise

Dried fruit trending among health-minded consumers

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:18:23 GMT

As consumers — from millennials to baby boomers — adopt new healthy eating goals, sales of dates, prunes and dried fruit are gathering momentum.

Suppliers say more consumers than ever are discovering the health benefits of dates.

“Business has been fantastic as the velocity of our sales steadily climb by double digits year over year,” said Luke Fountain, sales representative for Bakersfield, Calif.-based Atlas Produce and Distribution Inc.

“Our business aside, the entire category has been growing at the consumer level, which is good for everyone in the industry,” he said.

Dates are an “undiscovered product” that more and more consumers are learning about, said Tony Somohano, director of wholesale sales for Woodspur Farms LLC, Coachella, Calif.

Woodspur Farms is the largest certified organic date farm in the U.S., according to Somohano, with about 3,000 acres of organic dates.

Dates are largely eaten as a snack, but they also have a significant role as a sweet, healthful ingredient at home and in industrial food manufacturing, where they’re used for date paste, diced dates, coconut rolls, syrup, powders and as a replacement for artificial sweeteners.

“None of the crop goes to waste,” Somohano said. “We even sell the pits.”

This year’s date crop is of very good quality, said DJ Ryan, sales and operations manager for Sun Date in Coachella.

“We’re very happy with it,” he said. “We had ideal weather conditions this summer.”

Organic seems to be a trend in the date category.

“More date gardens are transitioning to organic,” Ryan said.

The two most popular date varieties are the large, plump medjool and the smaller, semi-dry deglet noor, which is commonly sold packaged and pitted in supermarkets.

Woodspur offers about a dozen varieties, which are harvested at various times from late August until early November, Somohano said.

“We had a super quality crop this year,” he said, which was about 6% larger than last year’s.

The company does a lot of private-label packaging for major retailers, he said.

Atlas Produce offers California-grown organic and conventionally grown date products under its Fresh Energy brand, Fountain said.

Dates are a good export item, Ryan added.

Sun Date’s export destinations include Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and South America.

Many high-quality medjools even are exported to Middle Eastern destinations like Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

Prunes, known as dried plums before switching back to their original name last year, are another consumer favorite.

California, where about 99% of domestic prunes are grown, had a “very good crop” this year, said Donn Zea, executive director of the Roseville-based California Prune Board.

“We did plenty of pre-harvest thinning,” he said.

“That ensures that we will have the kind of prunes people expect from California — larger, sweeter prunes.”

There will be a good range of sizes this year that will be “well distributed in the larger sizes” that consumers prefer.

About 45% of California’s prunes will be exported this year, with Japan the major market and about one-third of the exports going to Europe, especially northern Italy.

“The prune crop has been strong in California with the wet weather and good blooming temperature,” said Stephanie Harralson, director of marketing, North America, for Yuba City, Calif.-based Sunsweet Growers Inc .

“Prune plums are harvested in August, but prunes are a year-round product, perfect for healthy snacking,” Harralson said.

Sunsweet offers Sunsweet Amaz!n Prunes, prune juice, PlumSweets chocolate coated prunes, dates, dried apricots, dried cherries, dried mango, dried pineapple, raisins and dried cranberries.

Traina Foods Inc., Patterson, Calif., sells bulk dried fruit, including cherries, apricots, peaches, dates, figs, pears and cranberries, some of which are organically grown, said president Willie Traina.

The company’s Fruitons line features sun-dried fruits in various blends meant to be added to salads, soups and breakfast items.

Related content:
Natural Delights celebrates National Medjool Date Day
Joolies organic dates make jump to retail
Strong season ahead for nuts, prunes and dates