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Fresh-cut Remains Fastest-Growing Trend in Produce Industry
With $12 billion
in annual sales, pre-cut, pre-washed and packaged fruits and vegetables
remain the fastest growing segment in the produce sector, and the
category still has plenty of room to grow, according to a new research
report by the International Fresh-cut Produce Association (IFPA).
IFPA’s “Fresh-cut Produce Fuels an America On-the-go,”
is a comprehensive “state-of-the-industry” report exploring
the current and future fresh-cut marketplace, growth drivers and facts
and figures on the fresh-cut produce industry. The report was produced
by PakIntell and sponsored by Del Monte Fresh Produce.
According to the report, packaged salads are the second-fastest selling
item in U.S. grocery stores, with $2.6 billion in annual retail sales,
followed by fresh-cut vegetables at $1.4 billion. The still-young
fresh-cut fruit category, which reports $300 million in annual retail
sales, is likely to surpass the $1 billion mark over the next three
years to four years. The industry boasts $6 billion in annual sales
to the foodservice sector.
A number of trends are driving the fresh-cut produce industry’s
continued strong growth, according to the white paper:
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The
nation’s ongoing obesity epidemic is causing people to find
easy ways to eat more fruits and vegetables;
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A federal nutrition panel has recommended changes in the nation’s
Food Pyramid that feature increased intake for fruits and vegetables;
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Foodservice sales now top $429 billion a year, and nearly half of
all meals are consumed away from home;
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Foodservice
establishments – including restaurants, cafeterias and airlines
– are increasingly relying on fresh-cut produce to reduce
labor costs and lower food safety risks; and
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Consumers
continue to seek and demand convenient, high-quality foods that
fit into their increasingly busy lifestyles.
“Demand
for do-it-for-me convenience has been the big driver behind the tremendous
growth of pre-cut, pre-washed and packaged fruits and vegetables for
the past 15 years,” IFPA President Jerry Welcome said, “but
convenience is now getting a big boost from growing concerns about
obesity and health issues in general.
“The big challenge we face as an industry now is to project
the convenience we have delivered to America’s home kitchens
into other channels. We need to keep pace with an ‘America on-the-go,’
where as many as 20 percent of all meals are consumed in automobiles
and half of all meals are consumed away from home.”
Despite record-breaking sales, fresh-cut produce represents only a
13 percent penetration of the total fresh produce market – good
news for processors and marketers of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.
The white paper challenges processors to address several key opportunities
in order to sustain growth over the next 15 years, including:
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Focusing
on the right consumer and determining what new products they truly
want, “not just what can be conveniently made for them.”
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Promoting
how fresh-cut fruits and vegetables can fit into a healthy, fast-paced
lifestyle and providing consumers with more recipes and time-saving
tips.
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Diversifying product offerings and searching for new varieties of
fruits and vegetables overseas.
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Capitalizing on the merger of salads and protein as a main meal.
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Shortening the supply chain to keep the “fresh” in fresh-cut.
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Creating
different offerings for different retail and foodservice channels,
including club stores, vending machines, mass merchandise chains,
schools and offices.
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Thinking
out-of-the-box about packaging, including single-serve, snacking
and multi-component offerings.
A PDF copy of
IFPA’s “White Paper on Fresh-cut Trends and Packaging”
can be downloaded by IFPA members for free at www.fresh-cuts.org
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