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merchandising review stone fruit
North America have decreased slightly for peaches and more significantly for nectar- ines and plums. Nectarine volume has fallen by 28% between 2015/16 and 2018/19, from 2,836,000 boxes to 2,029,000.”
The Chilean Fresh Fruit Association directs all the marketing and promotional activities for the fresh fruit that’s exported from Chile to the United States and Canada.
“Sampling is key in demonstrating to consumers that they can get juicy, flavorful stone fruit in the heart of winter, courtesy of Chile,” says Brux. “Whenever we work with retailers to promote stone fruit, we generate double-digit sales increases.”
The counter-seasonal sales will never rival peaches in the summer, but it is a mistake to ignore this opportunity.
“There are still retailers who don’t even sell stone fruit in the winter, much less promote it,” says Brux. “Most consumers aren’t looking for stone fruit during the winter, so we need to work with retailers to build prominent displays in high-traffic areas of produce.”
U.S. fresh market peach imports actually have increased in sales over the past decade, according to the U.S. Department of Agricul- ture Economic Research Service — from $54 million to $72 million — while plum imports have gone from $36 million to $46 million.
“Total fresh nectarine and peach planted area in Chile reached 17,500 acres in 2017- 18, of which 12,500 acres are nectarines and 5,000 are peaches,” according to the USDA FAS Stone Fruit Annual for 2018. “Nectar- ine-planted area has remained steady at around 13,000 acres. Fresh-peach planted area has decreased from 8,000 acres in 2010-11.”
Fresh-peach production in Chile has declined by 60 percent over the past decade, while nectarine production has dropped a more modest 20 percent, but that country remains a significant source of winter stone fruit for the United States. “The top market for Chilean peach and nectarines is the United States, where exports totaled nearly 42,000 tons and 39% of exports, but decreased by 7% over 2016-2017,” according to the Stone Fruit Annual. “The main reason for the decrease of exports to the United States is that it is a very competitive market, and prices obtained are low compared to other markets.”
Nectarines, peaches and plums are shipped out of Chile from December until March or April.
4. CONSIDER SPECIALTY VARIETIES
Few consumers or retailers pay attention to particular varieties of peaches, nectarines
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or plums, but some growers are working to change that. “Consumers are looking for flavor first and foremost, regardless of the variety,” says Jeannine Martin, director of sales for The Giumarra Companies’ Reedley, CA, division. “Younger generations are eager to under- stand how to experiment with stone fruit in a variety of ways, such as in smoothies, sorbets, and grilling peaches and nectarines alongside main dishes. We need to give consumers more creative ways to use stone fruit to increase sales.”
Giumarra is a produce marketing company with sales teams based on the West Coast, including the stone fruit and citrus branch in Reedley, CA, Nogales, AZ, and Mexico.
“Our growth has been in specialty vari- eties, such as our French-bred Nature’s Partner DulceVida yellow and white Nectarine line,” says Martin. “We’re seeing growing consumer response to our proprietary line of DulceVida white and yellow nectarines as proof of the desire for these high-flavor profile varieties.”
There are breeding opportunities because plums and apricots are genetically similar and can hybridized making pluots (75 percent plum and 25 percent apricot), plumcots (50 percent plum and 50 percent apricot) and apriums (75 percent apricot and 25 percent plum).
Although these specialties, and the seldom- found cross called the peacharine, all have very small market shares, they may be appreciated by consumers of a particular sort.
“It’s always a challenge educating consumers about what the specialty items are,” says Michael Elwinger, marketing manager for Kingsburg Orchards, Kingsburg, CA. “We offer signage and point-of-sale cards. Our job is to send the retailers information.”
Although specialty varieties take more to merchandize, the extra effort may pay off.
“We are gaining traction, especially with the pluots,” says Elwinger. “The apriums and peacharines are smaller in volume. Sampling our product is another thing we encourage the retailers to do. We have a velvet apricot with a different kind of skin. We have a black velvet apricot that looks like a plum until you taste it.”
During the winter, Redtop and Brittney Lane peaches are growing in volume out of Chile, according to Brux, as are Andesnecuno, Gardeta, Andesnectres and Luciana nectar- ines, and lemon plum, Black Kat, Owen T and Dapple Delight plums.
Well-developed programs both inside and outside the store can be particularly important in merchandising these lesser-known varieties.
“Advance merchandising is necessary; we don’t sell a lot of yellow-flesh peaches,” says
Family Tree Farms’ Goforth. “We specialize in plumcots, apriums, white flesh and donuts.”
Adds Coche Simonian, who founded Fowler, CA-based Simonian Fruit Company, which produces peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums: “There are so many varieties and variations, you almost can’t keep track of them. Yellow peaches and yellow nectarines are the biggest sellers by volume. But varieties aren’t always in season at the same time.”
5. OPTIMIZE YOUR SEASONAL SKUS
It remains important to offer numerous packs of the major varieties in the peak summer months.
“Sometimes, retailers have a peach and nectarine guy, and we might be the apricot and pluot guy,” says Kingsburg Orchards’ Elwinger. “They might have as many as six SKUs of apricots and pluots in the middle of the summer; they’ll have bulk, a pouch bag and a clamshell of each kind of fruit.”
The question of how many stone fruit varieties to carry depends on the store. “Each retailer knows their customers and what they want,” says Elwinger. “Some stores have customers who want a small amount of fruit they can pick up quickly, but a Costco would have clamshells with three or four pounds.”
The optimal number of SKUs is a matter of how many pack sizes to carry. “You should have at least two or three packs in the middle of the season,” advises Pfeiffer from the South Carolina Ag Department. “Run promotions. Work with growers and the state departments of agriculture to help you do that.”
The question of how many stone fruit SKUs to display in the middle of the summer comes down to who your customers are.
“Each retailer has to decide how many SKUs to carry,” says HMC’s McClardy. “You start with yellow peaches and nectarines, white peaches and nectarines, and a complement of plums or plumcots. If you want to hit all the flavors, you need to have more [SKUs].”
Merchandising stone fruit year round is a matter of slowing the steady decline of a vener- ated category of delicious and nutritious fruit.
“Our industry has less volume than it used to,” says McClardy. “It’s gone down almost a third over the past 10 years.”
The stone-fruit category faces challenges, but there are still opportunities.
“These are clearly new times, and we’d better adapt,” says Goforth. “There are a lot of other healthy options to stone fruit. We need to connect with new consumers.” pb