In the US, fresh and value-added produce experienced dollar gains in the second quarter of 2014, resulting in produce department average weekly dollar sales increases by 4.5 per cent for the period.
This is according to the latest FreshFacts on Retail report issued today by the United Fresh Produce Association, the quarterly study produced in partnership with the Nielsen Perishables Group and sponsored by Del Monte Fresh Produce that measures retail price and sales trends for the top ten fruit and vegetable commodities, as well as value-added, organic and other produce categories.
For the second quarter, increased retail prices for fresh produce drove produce dollar gains, with most fruit and vegetable categories showing increased average retail prices compared to the same period of 2013.
Value-added fruits and vegetables experienced dollar sales and volume increases for most sub-categories despite increases in average retail price. Value-added fruits posted higher overall dollar and volume sales than value-added vegetables during the three-month period, although the volume and dollar sales growth rate for value-added vegetables outpaced that of value-added fruit.
The FreshFacts report also debuts a new feature called the 'Category Deep Dive' with expanded data for berries, citrus and packaged salad categories.
This report shows that strawberries generated 54 per cent of overall berry sales, with increases in both volume and dollar sales. For citrus, limes demonstrated an increase in average retail price of 63 per cent, resulting in a dollar sales increase of 50 per cent. For salads, organic salads and completes/kits both had double-digit growth in dollars and volume.
“The recommendation to expand the data in these larger produce categories came from the members of our retail-foodservice board,” said Jeff Oberman, vice-president of trade relations and liaison to United’s retail-foodservice board. “Our retail members have found this report to be an invaluable resource. We’re always looking to enhance the value of these reports and will continue to explore deep data dives and other commodities in future issues.”
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