Squashing Seasonality 2018-01-01 (1)

Everything...all the time. 

That is what consumers want today. Shopping the produce department is no different.

While years ago, shoppers could come to terms with only purchasing berries in the summer and squash in the winter, the modern consumer has come to expect a quality selection of produce to be available on a year-round basis.

In order to provide that, many companies import produce grown in Central and South America during the off-season, a practice that allows retailers to offer a consistent supply, no matter the time of year.

“Most consumers expect to find their favorite products on a year-round basis,” says Dionysios Christou, vice president of marketing for Coral Gables, Fla.-based Del Monte Fresh Produce. “This is also true for produce.”

Improved consistency in the produce section has many benefits, industry observers say, like leading to increased consumer recognition of various fruits and vegetables, adding up to more repeat purchases.

Mission Produce strives to have peak season fruit available at all times. In order to do so, when its California farms are in the off-season, the company imports avocados from farms in Mexico, Peru, Chile and New Zealand. Mission has eight centers in the U.S. that it uses to ripen fruit when it arrives from out of the country.

“Demand for avocados is year-round, especially in the U.S. and Canada,” says Robb Bertels, vice president of marketing for , based in Oxnard, Calif. He adds that the increased demand for avocados is in part due to the fact that they are available year-round.

Onions are another item that the consumer expects to see on display during a standard grocery store outing, regardless of the weather outside—in case they want to add them to holiday dishes or toss them on the grill during the summer months. Saven Corp., grower of OSO Sweet Onions, grows in Chile and Peru to accommodate this need, because Brian Kastick, company president, says that the only way to achieve a year-round produce selection is to go north and south of the equator.

“If you look at consumption patterns just as recently as 2000 or 1990 or 1980, no one expected everything year-round, but now when they go in the store they want what they want,” Kastick adds.

Shuman Produce also imports its sweet onions during the winter months, and has been doing so for nearly 20 years. Adam Brady, director of marketing for the Reidsville, Ga.-based company, says that consumer demand is what originally brought Shuman to Peru in search of a premium sweet onion offering for the fall and winter months.

Keeping sweet onions on shelves yearlong helps drive store sales, Brady adds, citing research that a produce basket containing sweet onions is roughly 40 percent larger than one that does not.

Year-round availability of produce is particularly beneficial for organic products as demand for organic does not change with the seasons—and conditions have to be just right to grow organically. For banana grower Organics Unlimited, Colima, Mexico proved to be the ideal spot, thanks to its dry season. Since no bananas are grown in the U.S., officials for Organics Unlimited say that the company exports 90 percent of its crop to the U.S.

Importing such large amounts of produce provides unique challenges for those growers willing to take on the task. Maintaining the quality of products shipped from far distances, and ensuring the safety of fresh food, is of paramount importance to growers.

Companies that import produce must take extra steps to ensure that U.S. standards are met. “We have robust food safety programs in place from the farm to the market, with tools and procedures such as quality system manuals, self-auditing programs, web-enabled handheld computer systems used by field personnel for audits, critical control point, processing data and mock recalls,” says Christou of the systems in place at Del Monte. “In addition, Del Monte quality managers are continuously trained to implement the most current, science-based food safety practices.”

Cultivating Communities

U.S.-based companies utilizing South and Central America for their growing seasons are generally strong supporters of the communities in which they operate. For instance, Mission Produce sponsors a school in Mexico. “We are very in tune with what is going on in the local communities and trying to support them whether it is employment or just helping however we can with the employees,” says Bertels.

In helping to give the local growers in these regions a better guarantee that their labors will not go to waste and that the produce they grow will actually be sold for a profit, the companies help to stabilize the communities.

“We provide jobs and infrastructure for all of our partners, all of whom are local farmers, father/son operations and small-time operations,” says Saven Corp.’s Kastick. “For them, having our technical, financial and logistical support is a big deal because before our involvement they could not pull off the crop. We helped them have access to world markets and receive high returns for their crop.”

Striving to be a good neighbor in its growing communities, Del Monte Fresh provides community health and safety programs, supports local education programs, works to enhance various communities’ infrastructures and runs local charities, among other activities.

Organics Unlimited has its own socially responsible label program called GROW. Each box of GROW labeled bananas—which account for 85 percent of the company’s sales—has a 60-cent surplus, which is completely donated to the GROW fund. To date, the company has supported 25 scholarships for children of farmers in its growing region of Colima, Mexico. It also provides the students with meals and a place to stay and do work during the week. Additionally, the company has sponsored dental and vision clinics and a clean water program in its farming communities located in Ecuador.

Native Roots

The Hispanic consumer base is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Retailers looking to capture this population’s dollars and loyalty would be well advised to stock products familiar to them, say industry observers, like many of those native to Central and South America.

In the past, Hispanic and Asian populations were mainly found in Miami, Los Angeles and New York; but today, with the population steadily on the rise and spreading throughout the country, retailers in places like Utah now need to think about addressing their needs.

“Hispanics and Asians are shopping at Anglo retail chains and they are looking for the things that they would expect to see at their stores back at their countries,” says Jessie Capote, executive vice president and partner, J & C Tropicals. “That is where we have added a lot of value to the retail sector.”

J & C Tropicals, based in Miami, is one such company that offers U.S. grocers the ability to sell authentic produce, like Hispanic root vegetables, yucca, carrot root, white yams, chayote squash and mangoes, grown in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras.

“Retailers benefit from stocking these foods,” Capote says. “We have grown significantly in the last 10 years because they have come to us and said, ‘We have no idea what we need to carry to satisfy our Central American shopping demographic, can you help us decide what to carry.’”

It is not only the Hispanic consumer seeking out these more unique items anymore—there is also a crossover of demand for exotic products, stemming from popular “foodie” culture and the more adventurous and maturing palate of many American consumers. Mangoes, pineapples and avocados have experienced a high level of crossover, Capote says, while other items, like yucca, are on the rise.