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HEAT UP WINTER SALES WITH
IMPORTED BERRIES
Imported varieties collectively have doubled in three years.
BY CAROL BAREUTHER
Move over citrus. Berries are becoming as popular in the winter as they have been for years in the summer. Key to this is greater availability.
Imports of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries collectively doubled from 774.7 million in 2014 to 1.6 billion pounds in 2017, according to USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) data updated Aug. 15, 2018.
is o shore source, combined with onshore domestically grown fruit, is why berries ranked as the No. 1 fruit category in the United States last year, according to FreshFacts on Retail, 2017 Year In Review, published by the Washington, DC-head- quartered United Fresh Produce Association.
“South America, Central America and Mexico all do a good job now with soft fruit, meaning that in January the berries taste great,” says Jason Kazmirski, director of produce and oral merchandising for the 70 independent grocers that are part of Tukwila,
WA-based Northwest Grocers, which operates under banners such as riftway, Payless Foods, Red Apple Markets and IGA Markets. “ is helps give the produce department diversity in the winter when citrus usually dominates. Berries are a strong 52-week category for us now.”
Demand for berries continues to grow, according to Jim Roberts, vice president of sales for Naturipe Farms, headquartered in Naples, FL. “ e category has been on an extremely impressive run, growing 4-12 percent per year for more than ve years, with organic demand growing at twice that rate. Imported berries have had a very positive impact on this growth, and consumers expect to always nd berries at their local grocery store.”
It’s not just one or two berries, says Bill Cotton, director of retail sales at Driscoll’s, in Watsonville, CA. “Shoppers expect a full patch, all four berries, in conventional and organic, year-round. is is now possible with the addition of o shore fruit.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATURIPE FARMS
QUALITY & QUANTITY IS KEY
One reason for the lucrative nature of berries, especially those from o shore, is improved quality.
“Quality is more than just the condition of the fruit,” says Luciano Fiszman, blueberry category manager for the Redondo Beach, CA-based Gourmet Trading Company. “ e USDA de nes the condition, but the consumer de nes quality. If they are not satis ed, they won’t come back to purchase fresh blueberries for a few weeks. Consumers’ expectations are higher now than some years ago. ey are more educated today, and ship- pers have become better at delivering a better product.”
In many ways, says Kristina Lorusso, the Vero Beach, FL-based regional busi- ness development director for e Giumarra Companies, headquartered in Los Angeles, “growers are driving the trend toward bigger, better avor berries because of their increasing market-savvy and understanding of what drives consumption. As a result,
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