DENVER—It’s a good time to be in Colorado, even with unpredictable weather, labor shortages and a tight real estate market.
“Colorado is really hot right now – the brand, real estate are super-hot, but we need to make sure the market stays stable for producers,” said Kenny Meyer buyer for Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market Inc.’s Rocky Mountain division.
Meyer, along with Tom Lynch, produce and floral merchandiser for Kroger’s King Soopers division were the designated retail participants in a buyer panel discussion at the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association meeting on Feb. 21.
Meyer emphasized the role retailers have to play in educating consumers about the realities of farming, and sourcing quality produce.
“None of the costs for growers are going down,” he said. “We need to support farmers by providing real markets for their products.”
Lynch outlined produce trends he’s seeing from Colorado consumers. Local is a growing category for King Soopers, and Lynch said his team is working not only to source more, but also make sure customers have a greater awareness of local product availability.
“We’re striving to do better with our local image,” he said. “Colorado is one of the strongest for Kroger for its local presence.”
Organic also is a strong mover in Colorado, he said.
“For us, organic sales have had double-digit growth year after year after year,” he said. “We sell more organics in Colorado than almost every other division of Kroger. The only division that sells more organics than us is Fred Meyer in Washington.”
Increasing demand has put pressure on organic supply, Meyer said, but producers are keeping up, and the availability of organics at most retail has expanded. That puts a lot of pressure on retailers and growers as well, he said.
“You can get organics everywhere, at 7/11 practically,” he said. “There’s been deflation in that market. We follow, to a degree, and have invested in our stores and a major restructuring to respond to the fact that the market has changed. Some of the retails I’m putting gin are 1980s prices.”
There’s a delicate balance, however, he said.
“We try not to take the grower backward, because they have fixed input costs, but there’s a little thing called margin we have to meet,” he said. “There’s a lot of juggling that goes on. The fixed cost for items doesn’t go down. It goes up, but the marketplace has evolved to where people think grapes are 88 cents and they’re just not.”
Lynch agreed that competition is influencing price.
“There’s a lot of competitive pressures that are holding the price of produce down,” Lynch said. “We have to continue to strive to meet what the customer wants, and what the grower needs. We’re going to continue to work with all the local farmers to make it a win-win all around.”
Can’t escape the purple
Like most other markets in the U.S., Colorado is seeing its fair share of purple among the hottest trends in produce.
From purple cauliflower to purple kale, eggplant and even purple Brussels sprouts, the deep, rich color and nutritious kick has this color trending among chefs and other foodservice outlets, said Steven Genth, produce buyer and local ambassador for FreshPoint Denver.
“Right now beets are super trendy now, too,” he said. “There are a lot of chefs looking for preprocessed and packaged beets because those are a labor intensive. There’s a big market for the already skinned, already processed items like cauliflower rice and zoodles.”
“Just vegetables in general – they’re hot,” said Mike Sagrati enterprise manager at J.R. Simplott. “There’s no other way around it. Restaurants are making vegetables the stars of the menu by braising, roasting, grilling and charring.”