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organic marketing tomatoes
Separate Or Integrate For Sales?
Merchandising organic tomatoes is a matter of taste, but either way, they will sell.
omatoes drive the vegetable category in both tonnage and dollar contribution, and or- ganic tomatoes have grown by leaps and bounds, says
Harold Paivarinta, senior director and head of sales for North America for Red Sun Farms, Leamington, Ontario.
Paivarinta says organic tomatoes have grown year-over-year for the past five years.
“While technological advancements and growing practices have driven efficiency, that gap between conventional and organic has narrowed, but organic production will always be costlier,” he says. “Organic produce, including organic tomatoes, is more expensive to grow — that’s the bottom line.”
David Ferman, marketing director for San Antonio-based Brighthouse Organics, a NatureSweet Ltd. company, says as it is with the vast majority of produce items, the demand curve for organics slopes downward; the higher the price, the less is purchased.
“Organic produce sales are currently on the rise,” he says. “What is more important than comparing conventional versus organic
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is to look at the incrementality of organics and to realize that the organic shopper will go to another store to buy product if what they are looking for isn’t available.”
Rick Feighery, vice president of sales for Procacci Bros. Sales Corp., in Philadelphia, distributor of Santa Sweets, says the company sees trends in its organic tomatoes with Santa Sweets selling best, followed by vine-ripened tomatoes, tomatoes-on-the-vine and Romas.
Pricing of organic tomatoes can vary depending on availability, seasonality, loca- tion and demand, says Chris Veillon, chief marketing officer for Pure Hothouse Foods Inc., Leamington, Ontario. “You may see pricing as much as double, or sometimes more, depending on the time of year,” he says.
Frank Romero, vice president of produce and floral for The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, says offering high-quality organic toma- toes at a fair retail price compared to their conventional counterparts is a recipe for success. “The spread between organic and conventional should be considered when determining a pricing strategy,” he says. “The retail ceiling would be driven by the market.”
Vince Mastromauro, produce director for Sunset Foods, High-
land Park, IL, says pricing organic tomatoes at what can be
viewed as a value to customers and having them on-ad weekly
PHOTO BELOW COURTESY OF SUN RED FARMS
works best to sell product. “I have a retail set that I never surpass so that I show value day in and day out,” he says.
INTEGRATED OR SEGREGATED?
Although organic produce continues to grow at a double-digit pace, it’s not yet commoditized, so merchandising space is less prominent when comparing organics versus conventionally grown items, says Paivarinta. “However, we see more retailers freeing up additional linear feet or expanding their departments in response to consumers’ increasing demand for organic SKUs,” he says.
There are two schools of thought on
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