FOREIGN FLAVORS

Matthew Enis

To the average shopper, chayotes, cherimoyas, lychee nuts and Buddha Hands probably sound like things Yoda would mix into some mystical Jedi potion.

Fruits and vegetables with these names are very real, however, and are gaining a firmer foothold within mainstream supermarkets, as retailers attempt to broaden their appeal with growing immigrant communities and local foodies.

"There's just such a mix of ethnicities in our market now," said John Odahara, produce director for Lazy Acres Market, Santa Barbara, Calif. "Stuff that I would never have thought would sell here does sell."

Dragonfruit and lychee nuts, for example, have long been popular among Lazy Acres' Southeast Asian customers, but Odahara said interest in these items is spreading.

Specialty produce distributors say understanding local demographics is critical when developing a specialty produce offering.

"You couldn't just say that lychees would sell well in every single Kroger or Albertsons location in the U.S., for example," said Robert Schueller, director of public relations for Los Angeles-based Melissa's World Variety Produce.

When making an effort to appeal to ethnic groups, the goal is to make the produce department a one-stop shop, Schueller said. "Customers don't want to go to one store for their bananas and another store for their mangoes and papayas."

In many cases, local demand may be more evident. For example, two of Associated Food Stores' corporate Macey's locations in Hispanic communities have devoted major portions of their produce departments to cater to those customers, said Annette Egan, a buyer for the Salt Lake City-based distributor's floral and produce division.

"The stores have a 20-foot by 10-foot walk-around section that offers only Hispanic items such as peppers, tomatillos and plantains," she said, noting that items such as corn husks, cilantro, jicama, Key limes, mangoes, papayas and kiwano melons are popular with these customers as well.

Egan, however, noted that cultivating interest among non-Hispanic shoppers was still key to sustaining such large sections. Other retailers said broader interest in exotic produce is driven more by cooking shows, food magazines and an increasing number of well-traveled customers.

"It's not always customers of a particular ethnicity purchasing these products," Odahara said. "I'm sometimes surprised at the people who buy them. There's just a lot of information out there that consumers are picking up on.

"Recently on Emeril [Lagasse's Food Network show], he used a Buddha Hand in a recipe," Odahara continued. "That's something that we've carried for a long time, but was bought pretty much exclusively by restaurant chefs in our area. Then, all of a sudden we started having a lot of regular consumers express an interest in it."

These sudden spikes of interest can sometimes be problematic, particularly when a popular show features an exotic item that happens to be out of season.

"It seems like they must film some of these shows a few weeks or months ahead of airing, because they sometimes feature items that aren't available anymore," Egan said. "That's when you know that people are watching cooking shows, when you suddenly get a bunch of calls about something that's out of season."

Associated has attempted to combat the problem by working with a cooking show on a regional network affiliate, she said. The local shows are filmed closer to airing, and Egan said the company gives the network simple advice.

"We tell them things like, 'Don't advertise fresh cranberries in July, because we just can't get any,"' she explained.

Most produce managers would agree that any additional foodie traffic in their departments is a good thing, but Egan's comments highlight the challenge of merchandising exotic assortments for would-be Martha Stewarts.

To make sales of exotics more predictable and consistent, retailers can be aggressive about generating interest. For new buyers, the colorful look, exotic names and unfamiliar flavors of these items present possibilities and pitfalls.

"The biggest challenge is that most customers are not going to know what to do with these items," said Brian Gannon, director of produce and floral for Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y Foods.

Gannon said he merchandises an assortment of exotics because he feels they are a necessity, not because his departments serve a large percentage of ethnic shoppers or because he senses a new fad on the horizon.

As an example, he pointed to a poster child of the tropical specialty fruit segment.

"Kiwis sell well, but they'll never sell like apples or bananas," he said. "You offer exotics because it gives a produce department a certain amount of depth that customers have come to expect."

Generating buzz among fans of everyday apples and bananas requires education, and experts generally agree that sampling is the most effective way to win over consumers.

"It really depends on what type of labor is available at a store," noted Karen Caplan, president of Frieda's, a Los Alamitos, Calif.-based specialty produce distributor. "It's a proven statistic that the best way to get a consumer to try a new food is to give them a taste. Let's say a produce department has a few cherimoyas that are more ripe than the others on display. Cherimoyas ripen quickly, so it would make sense to cut them up and offer them to customers as a way to stimulate sales."

At Associated Foods, Egan said interactive demos had become a major new initiative when promoting anything, including unfamiliar produce items.

"We like to interact with the customer," she said. "Say we want to sell tomatillos. We might put them together with tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro to make salsa, and have someone demonstrate using a food processor that would also be for sale. We'd rather have someone there actually making the salsa while customers were watching than just put out a plate of food."

Getting and retaining good store-level labor is, of course, a constant challenge.

"Ideally, you'll have store personnel that can respond to the consumer and explain these products to them," said Bruce Axtman, president and chief executive officer of the Perishables Group, West Dundee, Ill.

An employee who can explain a fruit's origins, how it can be used, what seasons it's available and why a shopper might want to try it goes a long way toward encouraging a customer to try something new, Axtman said.

"Many of the smaller regional chains and more upscale stores that have more service and more labor have created a much higher likelihood that customers will have that experience in their stores," he said. "But it's a big challenge for larger chains to do that effectively."

Whether or not retailers have the staff to develop a sampling program, they should use the resources available through their suppliers, Axtman said. For example, both Frieda's and Melissa's offer detailed flavor descriptions, serving suggestions and storage tips for every item they offer on their Web sites, and both companies offer a wealth of merchandising tips, marketing materials and other resources for retailers.

"If you don't have the staff, just have an in-store special that highlights -- not even necessarily discounts, but highlights -- one of these items," Caplan said. "A point-of-sale sign that describes a cherimoya as a tropical fruit imported from Chile that tastes like pineapple sherbet will generate some interest."

Another solution, employed by many successful produce departments, is a simple policy.

"We do constant sampling, every day," Odahara said. "I've instructed everyone in our department that if they see a customer standing around with a puzzled look on their face, just cut the fruit and let them try it."

Fruitful Sales

California Green Keitt Mango 133%

Star Fruit 32%

Strawberry Papaya 27%

Quick Crack Coconut 18%

Red Banana 14%

Cherimoya 13%

Maradol Papaya 12%

Passion Fruit 11%

Plantains 9%

Pepino Melon 6%

Kiwano 5%

Percentages indicate unit sales increases over the 52 weeks ending Sept. 30, 2005, vs. the same period a year earlier.

Source: Melissa's World Variety Produce