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“Create product cards to promote creative uses, from making the apple itself into a dip bowl and putting in Marzetti Caramel or peanut butter dip,” says Brian Coates, Apple- wood’s director of business development.
Recommending suggestions for Waldorf salads, apple pies, crisps and smoothies — which are perfect for the Fourth of July — also can help drive sales. All of it can be done, according to Mascari, through displays, product cards and recipes.
Coates also suggests secondary displays
near traditional summer fruits, such as berries, melons, grapes, stone fruit and cherries. Another idea is to set up a smoothie end cap with fruits and veggies.
“Organize a farmers’ market event in-store or in the parking lot,” says Coates. “Invite local growers to display and sample. To promote local growers, we have meet-the-grower info cards, high-res photos and recipes to merchan- dise with the displays.”
There also are lots of cross-marketing ideas for apples, including as a salad topping paired
66 / JUNE 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
PHOTO COURTESY OF APPLEWOOD FRESH GROWERS
with raisins, chopped nuts, croutons and salad dressings. Then there are baking supplies for a classic apple pie—pie crusts, apple crisp mixes. Other opportunities are smoothie mixes and fruit trays for graduation parties and other celebrations.
LOCAL AND ORGANIC
When it comes to distributing Michigan produce, Deblouw says Mike Pirrone Produce keeps things local, for the most part.
“We try to keep as much of our produce in our state and neighboring states,” he says. “With the diversity and list of items we grow, at times we will ship to the Southeast and Southwest.”
The other trend the company is focusing on is meeting the demand for organic produce. “Organic has been a focus of ours for the past 15 years,” says Deblouw. “The 2019 season, we have around 90 acres of greens production, consisting of green kale, red Tuscan collards and rainbow chard. Also, we are expanding our organic hard squash plans to offer green acorn, butternut, spaghetti, kabocha, delicata and sugar pies. We are doing trials of green peppers and cabbage and are working on those programs for the
2020 season.”
Superior Sales is also considering entering
the growing organic market.
“The organic category is something we’re
looking into in addition to and to help complement our existing conventional items,” says Hodges.
With so many options for healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables, promoting produce from Michigan is sure to improve sales and satisfy customers. pb