Fresh Cut Magazine

Start the New Year Right - Visit Your Suppliers

The beginning of a new year always brings optimism. Many people think January wipes the slate clean from problems you may have encountered over the past 12 months, but in reality it never does. With this in mind, might I suggest you take a fresh look at your suppliers? Food safety and food security will continue to make news in 2008, and now is the best time to make sure your produce is safe. Visit Growers and Packers When was the last time you visited your suppliers? If it has been more than a year, book your flights today! Things change over the course of a year, and what was once a great shipper may look different today. Where do you start? How about on the ground? You might want to include a visit to the growing locations (in season) to see first-hand how they are doing…  » Read more

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Some segments see triple-digit increases

Fresh produce as a whole is a growing market, but the fresh-cut segment is outperforming the category. Produce as a whole is a $70 billion industry, and fresh-cuts account for about $12 billion. That’s a $1 billion, or 8 percent, increase from 2001. The fresh-cut industry is growing across the board, but the retail portion is showing a significant trend upward. Retail sales have increased to about $3.1 billion, with new products driving the growth. “Fresh-cut is one of the fastest growing segments of the retail chain as people are more drawn for convenience,” said Steve Lutz, executive vice president for the Perishables Group, a consulting and research firm that has been contracted by the Produce Marketing Association to study the retail market for fruits and vegetables. Convenience is the biggest factor in increasing sales at retail. According to the Perishables Group research, 68 percent of trips…  » Read more

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Sandstone Marketing targets value-added niche

When Milas Russell Jr., a melon grower in Arizona and California, looked at the fresh-cut industry in the early 1990s, he didn’t see it as a viable market segment. But a decade later, fresh-cut was going strong and Russell saw there was a need for a company to supply processors with quality product year around. Russell had been looking to get out of the commercial growing market because consolidation had made it hard for small growers like him to succeed. So in 2001, Russell took his company, Sandstone Marketing, from growing long shelf-life melons to producing cantaloupe and honeydew specifically for the fresh-cut market. “Retail was so competitive and had so many large players at that level that we couldn’t compete. We knew how to grow melons and package melons, so we looked at the fresh-cut industry.” The move into fresh-cut melons hasn’t been easy, but it…  » Read more

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The State of Fresh-Cut

The fresh-cut industry is continuing to grow, driven by a need for convenience. Foodservice establishments are looking for creative, fresh dishes that can be prepared by a staff with little training. Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables offer a safer -- and possibly fresher -- alternative to buying whole produce and cutting it in-house. The labor and time savings can offset the cost of buying ready-to-use products in many cases. On the retail front, consumers also are looking for convenience. The growth of the retail fresh-cut segment has outpaced the growth rate of fresh fruits and vegetables as a whole. American consumers are looking for more healthful products, and they’re turning to fresh-cuts to meet that need in the narrow time constraints they have. But while the sales figures point to a positive trend, there are other issues lurking beneath the surface. The rising cost of oil makes transport of…  » Read more

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