Page 168 - index

dried fruits & nuts pecans
Pecans
Gaining
Ground
Promoting versatility and health bene ts throughout the year can increase sales.
BY DOUG OHLEMEIER AND HOWARD RIELL
s production and demand increase, pecan sales are be- coming a larger retail cat- egory. While the holiday season accounts for the ma-
jority of sales, consumption is expanding and opportunities abound to drive sales during other times of the year.
Marketers not only are pitching pecans’ versatility and their health bene ts, but they’re also trying to get produce executives to look beyond two time-old obstacles — that pecans can only used in baking and that they only can be merchandised during the fourth quarter.
“Pecans are becoming a more important retail category,” says Daniel Zedan, owner and president of Nature’s Finest Foods, Ltd., a Batavia, IL, marketing and consulting group. “ ey are an extremely healthy nut. Pecans have a great avor pro le.”
Zuppardo’s Family Supermarket in Metairie, LA, sells more than 100 cases of pecans per week during the holidays, erecting large displays next to dried fruits and ingre- dients for making fruit cakes. But the New Orleans retailer also promotes pecans from spring to winter. “We have good success throughout the year,” says Joey Zuppardo, co-owner. “We keep them in stock year-round, though there are peak times for them.”
A decade ago, retailers would clean-up on their holiday inventory and only market pecans late in the year. But pecans have become a top- ve item when it comes to nuts, dried fruits and trail mixes, says Paul Rich, vice president of sales for Durham-Ellis Pecan Co., based in Comanche, TX. “People use them for snacks, and they’re still baking during the other nine months of the year,” he says.
Will McGehee, partner with Genuine
168 / OCTOBER 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
Georgia Group, LLC, in Fort Valley, GA, agrees, saying snacking is the category that the pecan industry is “attacking.”
“We are always looking for ways to cross-merchandise the pecans with meal-solu- tion ingredients to encourage healthy cooking, but the snacking category is our main target for new consumer,” says McGehee. “We want kids to eat them in car rides and in the bleachers at ballgames. We want moms to pull them out of their purses in waiting rooms and in the park.”
SALES INCREASING
Pecan sales are steadily increasing for Truly Good Foods, a Charlotte, NC-based snack supplier. “[Pecans] have been one of our best-selling produce items for a number of years,” says Chad Hartman, director of marketing. “ e healthy attributes are a big help when considering the steady growth. We are nding consumers are trying to nd more reasons to use pecans, in cereal and yogurt toppings, as salad toppers and in baking.”
Still, consumer research conducted on behalf of the American Pecan Council in Fort Worth, TX, revealed low knowledge of pecans. e research demonstrated that the top-of-mind recall of pecans, at 15 percent, was signi cantly lower than other nuts.
Many consumers didn’t consider pecans as a nut but as a baking ingredient, says Alexander Ott, the Council’s executive director. Pecans
were most associated with pies, sweets and indulgent desserts, while other nuts were more likely to be linked to snacking and nutrition. e Council wants to broaden the appeal for pecans as an everyday snack or versatile cooking ingredient. rough American Pecans, e Orig- inal Supernut brand positioning, the council wants to increase domestic consumption. “ is is the rst national campaign for pecans and a consumer education initiative to get Americans to think about pecans in a new way,” says Ott.
e industry should market pecans’ versa- tility, advises Lucas Schmidt, sales director of New Aces Pecan Co., in Las Cruces, NM. “ e more ways we can show people how to use pecans, the more they will choose to buy them and include them in their regular diet and grocery shopping,” he says.
RETAIL BIGGEST CHANNEL
Supermarkets represent the biggest sales channel for pecans, says Zedan. Retail chan- nels account for about 60 percent of U.S. sales, he says. About 36 percent of pecan pounds are sold on display in stores during the year, according to Brendan Honan, marketing chair for the National Pecan Shellers Association in Atlanta. Because 47 percent of pecans are sold on display during the holiday sales period, it is even more important to erect displays, he says.
In dollars, 10-ounce-or-smaller sizes represent 50 percent of the sales, while larger