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most popular foods for Chinese New Year are ginger, turmeric, baby bok choy, egg roll wrappers, wonton wrappers, Chinese eggplant, bitter melon, Chinese long bean, Napa cabbage, and daikon while the top fruits are dragon fruit, sweet young coconuts, kumquats, butterscotch pears, starfruit, jack- fruit, Shasta gold tangerines, Sumo citrus, rambutan, and Buddha’s hand.
“It’s like any other holidays; on anks- giving you have turkey and ham; for Hanukkah, you have latkes; or potatoes are popular during Christmas,” he says. “People will get into the culture leading up to the event. ey’ll see food articles about Chinese New Year, preparing for it and how it’s cele- brated in China, which is crossing over to become the Americanized holiday here in the United States.”
Jim Provost, president of I Love Produce, based in West Grove, PA, says garlic, ginger, Asian pears and Fuji apples are popular items in the United States.
“We prepare extra fruits for the Chinese New Year holiday, but garlic and ginger sales also increase as families are cooking and
preparing meals for friends and family,” he says. “Much like you would see a bump in sales of pearl onions for anksgiving.”
Jackson Berkley notes that a variety of fruits and vegetables are popular in Asian countries.
“Although many produce items are grown all over the world today, many originate from di erent regions in Asia and Southeast Asia,” says Jackson Berkley. “Items like dragon fruit, young coconuts, Cherimoya, bok choy and Napa cabbage are important to di erent Asian communities based on what they grew up eating. Today, Asian consumers are also looking for their traditional vegetables, herbs and spices, like bitter melon, Chinese eggplant and lemongrass.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Many of these vegetables are growing in popularity year-round, not just during Chinese New Year.
“ e Asian produce category is becoming more important to mainstream retailers as our population becomes diverse,” says Jackson Berkley. “In fact, according to e National Restaurant Association’s 2017 State of the Industry report, 52 percent of adults are looking to expand the variety of ethnic cuisine in their diets.”
Provost says that according to IRI data, fresh ginger is one of the fastest-growing items in the produce department.
“For the past eight years it has been growing 12 percent year-over-year. Asian and Western consumers are both consuming more ginger for its health bene ts and also because it is used in many Asian cuisines,” he says. “We have several Western supermarkets that put ginger on ad speci cally for the Chinese New Year holiday, and we see sales increases more than 100 percent as a result.”
Schueller says sales in the Asian produce category are growing 10 to 20 percent each year, and stores that participate in Chinese New Year promotions see a 15- to 25-percent increase in sales during those promotions.
“ e Asian population is increasing in the United States, and as a result, so has the proliferation of Asian cuisines, both in restau- rants and at home,” says Provost. “We prepare sales for the holiday as we would any other major food holiday, like anksgiving or Christmas. Retailers are missing an important consumer demographic and sales opportunity if they don’t capitalize on these trends.”
Something else to keep in mind is that while these items aren’t familiar to many customers by name, people consume them on a regular basis. Anyone who has ever had sushi
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