Fresh Cut Magazine

Building Bonduelle

For more than 100 years, the family-owned Bonduelle company has been devoted to one single and unchanging passion: Vegetables. Today, the French-based company is one of the major food processors worldwide and is present in more than 80 countries. In a sector where change is an ongoing process and where production methods are controlled ever more stringently, Bonduelle uses its professional knowledge across a range of different types of technologies, including fresh, canned, frozen products and ready meals, and also has become a leader in the fresh-cut market. Among the company's 40 processing facilities worldwide (from Brazil to Ukraine, passing through Europe and Canada), there are eight plants completely dedicated to fresh-cut products. The European market for value-added vegetables is currently about $2.9 billion, and has been growing by 10 percent each year, according to the company. At present, Bonduelle is No. 1 in Europe…  » Read more

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State of the industry 2012

Like most fresh produce categories in grocery stores across the nation, value-added fruits and vegetables took a noticeable dip during the U.S. economic recession. However, frugal-fatigued shoppers are abandoning restrictive recession purchase habits, and value-added produce has rebounded in a big way. Unlike other categories that have struggled to gain footing amidst rising food prices, value-added produce has maintained sales, even flourished as a category, despite record high prices across departments. From 2006 through 2010, the value-added fruit and vegetable categories increased supermarket dollar sales by nearly 10.9 percent and 18 percent respectively. After slight dips from 2008 to 2009, each category posted consistent yearly increases in dollar sales and volume. Trends including steady development of new products, healthy snacking alternatives and convenience each lend to the continued success of value-added produce. Shopping behaviors clearly reflect the high value consumers place on fresh, time-saving produce…  » Read more

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20 Years and Counting

Twenty years doesn't seem that long for an industry, but for the fresh-cut produce industry it's been two decades of constant change, development and refinement of a fresh and healthful product. Fresh Cut magazine will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and after looking through many past issues it is amazing to see how the industry has improved the fresh-cut product. The fresh-cut industry was first organized in 1988 when the National Association of Fresh Produce Processors (NAFPP) was formed. In 1995, the NAFPP became the International Fresh-cut Produce Association (IFPA). In late 2006, IFPA and the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association merged, launching a new era of service to the produce industry by becoming the United Fresh Produce Association. The sales growth of the fresh-cut industry has been nothing if not phenomenal in the past two decades. Prepared fruits and vegetables are…  » Read more

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