WASHINGTON — Volume sales as well as dollar sales of berries, citrus fruits and avocados have been on the rise, research indicates.
What's more, they're the only commodity fruits in supermarkets' Top 10 that showed increases in both dollar and volume sales the second quarter of this year compared to the same period a year earlier.
Berries were up 10% in dollar sales and 2.7% in volume over the same period a year earlier. Citrus rose 12.3% in dollar sales and 0.4% in volume. Avocados were up 9.1% in dollar sales and 2.9% in volume.
These figures were compiled by The Perishables Group, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm, for Fresh Facts on Retail, a new quarterly newsletter that the United Fresh Produce Association unveiled here last week.
Overall, dollar sales in produce were up, but volume was down. In dollars, sales were up 3.2%; in volume, sales were down 4.1%. Berries, bananas and apples topped the dollar volume sales list, in that order, with bananas and apples up 21.4% and 7.8%, respectively, but down in volume by 0.3% and 4.0%, respectively.
Organic fruits and vegetables made a good showing in the second quarter both in dollars and in volume. That, researchers said, shows consumers have not been turned away from organic produce by increasingly higher prices.
Organic fruits grew by 25.7% in dollar sales and 16.2% in volume, while organic vegetables grew by 22.2% in dollar sales and 14.3% in volume.
Fresh Facts on Retail is produced in partnership with The Perishables Group, which tracks and provides analysis of all retail sales data, and the program's sponsor, Del Monte Fresh Produce.
In the debut issue, the newsletter reports on sales during the second quarter of 2008. Subsequent issues will be published soon after the close of each calendar quarter, after sales data has been compiled and analyzed, United officials said.
In addition to the sales and trend data for fresh produce, a feature called Category Spotlight focused on fresh tomatoes and the impact of the FDA's salmonella warning during the period. During the second quarter, retailers saw tomato sales decline 4.6% in dollars, but 16.6% in volume, compared with a year earlier. However, the full impact of the FDA's consumer warning was not felt until late in the quarter and continued into the third quarter of the year. An update on tomato sales in Q3 will be available in the next report.
“Fresh Facts on Retail will provide important data on sales trends that are just not generally available without contracting directly with a research firm,” said United Fresh President Tom Stenzel, in a release.
“United Fresh is committed to providing our members a growing array of valuable tools to enhance their business management, and we appreciate Del Monte's support for this new initiative.”
United's new Retail-Foodservice Board will provide guidance in shaping the report.
“We believe this research will help companies better understand retail trends across the industry, providing a benchmarking tool for retailers, commodity groups and individual companies to measure their own experience against national trends,” said Reggie Griffin, Kroger Co., who is chairman of United's Retail-Foodservice Board.
“Companies can also use Fresh Facts on Retail to get a heads-up on new market opportunities in value-added produce and emerging categories such as fresh meals.”
