PRATT TESTS NEW LINE OF CANNED ORGANIC VEGETABLES

BARBARA McDONALD

SHAWNEE, Okla. -- Pratt Foods Supermarkets here is one of the retailers testing a new line of certified-organic canned vegetables, co-packed by Chiquita, Cincinnati.

The products -- corn, peas and green beans -- were put on the shelves in all nine Pratt Foods stores last week, with a retail price of less than a dollar a can.

"It's a similar move into the canned goods as we saw with baby food, [Gerber's] Tender Harvest," said J.B. Pratt Jr., owner and chief executive officer of Pratt Foods Supermarkets.

He said Chiquita, whose familiar blue label appears on the side of the can, did extensive work with focus groups.

"Consumers want a reliable name, like Chiquita, and they want the name of the certifier on the label," Pratt said.

Although Pratt and other retailers may carry canned organic vegetables from a few companies that manufacture them -- such as Westbrae or Walnut Acres -- this is the first time a national brand has ventured into the canned organic-produce category.

Moreover, Tender Harvest and, now, Green Valley are not health-food-store products that have been transferred into a mainstream setting, Pratt pointed out. Rather, they are being positioned in the mainstream from the start.

Harriet Bossther, in Chiquita's branded canned-food marketing department, said that Green Valley is in a test-market phase and that Pratt is one of the chains testing the new product. She would not disclose the other test sites.