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United Fresh Produce Association recently released their FreshFacts on Retail: Whole and Fresh Cut Produce Trends 2016 report, with some interesting highlights I will share with you:
The Produce Department:
Value-Added Fruits & Vegetables:
Organics:
Meal Kits:
The Produce Department:
- Berries and packaged salads continue to dominate respective fruit and vegetable sales, as well as anchor department dollar and volume growth.
- Organic produce continues its rapid double-digit growth and now accounts for 9% of all produce dollars; however, many categories are still under-developed with organic accounting for less than 5% of commodity sales.
- Households are rapidly adopting new methods of obtaining their groceries. As infrastructure continues to develop, e-commerce could revolutionize the grocery shopping experience. Identifying strategies now will keep retailers ahead of the game.
- One quarter of all households have purchased a meal kit. These pre-portioned items are ideal for smaller households and provide added convenience.
- Shoppers spend more money in the store when produce is included in the transaction—$62 average basket size with produce as opposed to $34 with an assortment of other items.
Value-Added Fruits & Vegetables:
- In 2016, Value-Added Fruits represented 4.8% of total produce department sales.
- In 2016, Value-Added Vegetables represented 3.7% of total produce department sales.
- In fruits, Value-Added variety berries and mixed fruit dominate sales as they offer diversity for smaller households.
- Many commodities with flat or declining sales such as carrots and mushrooms experienced Value-Added growth in 2016, reflecting the consumers’ desire for convenient options.
Organics:
- Although organic sales account for just 9% of all fresh produce dollars, they accounted for 30% of all produce growth in 2016.
- Organic shoppers make eight more trips to the grocery store annually than non-organic produce shoppers.
- Organic packaged salads represent 23% of all packaged salad dollars.
- Organic berries account for 11% of all berry sales.
- Organic produce sales reached $4.46 billion in 2016, a growth of 13.2%
Meal Kits:
- The top reasons consumers purchase meal kits (listed in order): Saves time on meal planning, short prep and cook time, saves shopping time, enables shopper to try new recipes, recipes are healthy.