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mini sweet peppers, adding to an existing portfolio that includes tomatoes, as well.
“Consumers are looking for  avorful prod- ucts; they want consistency in the products that they are purchasing week in, week out, regardless of the season,” says Pure Flavor’s chief marketing o cer Chris Veillon. “ is is motivating greenhouse growers to continually search for the best varieties that create the most positive of eating experiences.
“As a vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable company, we continue to experience double-digit growth, year over year,” he says.
To capitalize on the trend for locally produced food, Pure Flavor has expanded its production into Peach County, GA, with 25 acres of a 75-acre high-tech greenhouse complex now complete.
“Regionally based growing operations are starting to become growth strategies to extend reach; reducing food miles is one thing, but the power of local to the region is gaining more and more steam, season over season,” says Veillon.
Although there is strong demand for toma- toes from Red Sun’s operations in Canada and Virginia, Mexican production has helped the group with bene ts including the weather, elevation, access to labor and the location.
“In Mexico, we’re the largest high-tech greenhouse producer in the country, and I think there’s an excess of 400 acres there,” he
says. “All of our greenhouses have high-tech, hydroponically or organically grown vegeta- bles; not mid-tech or shadehouse.”
Kingdom Fresh of Donna, TX, has approximately 450 acres of greenhouses and shadehouses in Mexico, according to general manager Jaime Garcia, with its main opera- tions in Torreón and Puebla.
“What we’ve been doing is one of the regions — Puebla — has helped us with their climate to have more precise yields and constant volume, and we became year-round growers around the year 2014,” says Garcia.
“Every time you’re going after a new customer or with the ones you already have,
PHOTO COURTESY OF OPPY
you have to focus on reliability ... today buyers are looking into a multiple tomato category instead of just one, with the Romas, the rounds, the grapes, the organics in the same vendor,” he says.
Although crops are protected by the growing method, Garcia emphasizes weather still plays a role.
“In the regions where it’s colder you should always have heating systems; in the regions where it’s hotter, you should always have enough ventilation through the greenhouse for the tomatoes to keep growing and not get stressed by the extreme heat,” he says. “So you need to have production in di erent parts.” pb
n BRAND DEMAND AND PREMIUM PRICING
More greenhouse producers are attempting to develop consumer-facing brands, with greater investment in brand marketing across the board.
Red Sun Farms, Kingsville, ON, is doing this with the recently released grape tomato Sweet Pop.
“It’s a cross between a cherry and a grape tomato so it’s that size, but it has a really high brix level,” says Red Sun presi- dent Jim DiMenna. “The success is phenom- enal – we’re sold out of something we didn’t even think we’d come close to selling out of; we sold out in the first two months, so we’re now establishing more acreage, and we’re going to build on that profile. A premium over field-grown crops is required for greenhouse-grown products. In order to do this we are selling the many benefits of greenhouse-grown produce.”
But getting that premium takes work. When asked about ways to boost sales, Aaron Quon, executive category director for greenhouse and vegetables at Oppy
26 / JANUARY 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
in Vancouver, BC, mentions a display contest Oppy’s Mexican greenhouse grow- er-partner Divemex is sponsoring called Pepper Up, which will run from mid-Jan- uary through mid-March.
“We are encouraging our customers to drive sales by bringing their pepper displays ‘up’ in size, or in location, such as moving the display ‘up’ to the front of the store or department,” says Quon.
“Another way to ‘Pepper Up’ would be to include organic and conventional peppers on display, or upselling to a socially conscious consumer because all Divemex peppers are Fair Trade Certified.
“Large displays prompt impulse purchases, as do sampling and attractively merchandised secondary sets positioned inside and outside the produce department with complementary ingredients such as tomatoes with salad kits in produce or fresh mozzarella in the deli section.”
Branding is also required to help raise demand for greenhouse-grown produce,
and Quon cites another successful example of this through the Frank & Able brand of tomatoes-on-the-vine grown in southern Alberta.
“Retailers in Western Canada and beyond are driving repeat sales and actually building brand recognition by showcasing the quality in branded cartons,” he says.
As with many greenhouse producers, BrightFarms isn’t just aiming for fresh- ness and consistency. Product innova- tion has been another key tenet with its brand, Sunny Crunch, packaged salad that BrightFarms says is now a “staple” with customers, and other introductions such as the Happy Beet beet-greens salad, Mighty Chard and Fresh Kick mustard greens.
“We are constantly innovating in ways that the traditional salad industry couldn’t,” he says. “We’ll try products that can be a little bit polarizing, and maybe half the population won’t like it, but the half that does like it really likes it; we don’t mind if it appeals to a smaller segment sometimes.”


































































































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