El Niño is causing havoc with some specialty fruits and vegetables.
The weather "has made doing business out of Peru very tough and a lot lighter this year,” said Jeff Friedman, president of CarbAmericas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Likewise in Ecuador, mango production is down around 60%, "and pricing is not going to be conducive to promotions,” he said.
For D Produce Co., Coral Gables, Fla., the weather problems impacted and damaged mango plantations in Peru "and people couldn't mitigate these problems," said Diego Morales, sales manager. Prices will be extremely high because of that, he said.
Recent political unrest in Guatemala also has blocked exports out of the country, and HLB Specialties has had trouble obtaining papayas, though the situation is easing, said Melissa Hartmann de Barros, director of communications.
This has also been affecting exports for CarbAmericas, which sources snow peas and snap peas from Guatemala. Now that the ports have reopened, "there will be a little bit of catch-up,” Friedman said.
Global variety
Global specialty produce is a large category that encompasses dragon fruit, papaya, rambutan and many other produce items.
One of the bestselling products for HLB Specialties is the samba papaya from Brazil, which is small and very sweet. "And it's non-GMO and some consumers pay attention to that," Hartmann de Barros said.
Another strong-selling product for HLB Specialties is the formosa papaya though "the samba is gaining in popularity and it's establishing a name for itself," she said.
The Fort Lauderdale-based company's produce comes from Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil.
"Consumers are wanting to try new items and there's a lot of potential items to introduce to the North American market," Hartmann de Barros said.
For CarbAmericas, specialty produce includes asparagus, mangoes, snow peas and snap peas, largely from Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, and Colombia.
WP Produce, Miami, offers a variety of produce, from manzanos (small bananas that taste like apples), passion fruit, dragon fruit and Hawaiian plantains. But its main business is tropical avocados, which are more exotic than hass avocados, says WP Produce Vice President of Sales Chris Gonzalez; tropical avocados have a different texture, taste and firmness to the hass varieties.
The company sources produce from the Dominican Republic and Florida, but also Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti and Jamaica. All its fruit is branded under its own Desbry label, and having a brand helps with consumer trust, Gonzalez says.
At Tops Friendly Markets, Williamsville, N.Y., dragon fruit is the "star player as far as growth, year over year," said Justin Rowe, category business manager for fruit. "That's really the rising star."
Also popular is star fruit, which "is where dragon fruit was three to four years ago. It's growing but nowhere near the growth of dragon fruit," he said.
"Every time we run an ad, it exceeds our expectations," Rowe said, adding that he gets return customers and new customers for dragon fruit. "When we have a hot price and put pictures in our circular and marry that with good merchandising in the stores, that really drives sales."
Buy one, get one free offers also helps sales "because you're moving a lot of units because customers buy two,” Rowe said. "And if we can get items down to a dollar or 99 cents, that gets a lot of traction."
Chandler, Ariz.-based Bashas' bestselling global specialty produce are malanga, yuca root, epazote herb, verdolaga, mamey, chayote, dragon fruit, passionfruit, guava and sugar cane. Director of Produce and Floral Patrick Mills says sales of these items are boosted with weekly ad specials, one-day and three-day ads, and weekend push items. "When we have a flush — when a grower is long on an item and needs to pick and ship — we get a deal and pass it forward."
Informed employees, informed customers
Tops Friendly Markets customers want to know what to do with specialty items and how to eat them.
"Whenever you can get a customer asking your associates about something because they don't know how it tastes or what to do with it, it's good," Rowe said.
Rowe arms associates with "a little bit of ammunition," for specialty products. "We give them talking points, especially on how to eat it."
Mills also likes to make sure he communicates with team members about these products, but he also uses in-store flyers, recipes and markdowns, but he says the best way "is to train our team members to openly interact with our guests."
Rowe also likes to work with vendors who provide signage that gives explanations about the specialty items, but he keeps it to a minimum. "We try to highlight an item or two every month, otherwise it's too cluttered," he said. To draw attention to dragon fruit, he promotes it by placing it on the lead tables.
Stand-alone and high-graphic bins from the Mango Board help draw attention, he says, as does a simpler 5-by-7 card.
HLB Specialties provides an information sheet for the different items that it supplies to retailers to print and display in the produce department. Each fruit has a different sheet to be used depending on what the retailer is pushing in a specific week, Hartmann de Barros said.
And demos are effective in introducing specialty products to consumers, but they're expensive with these more costly products, she said.
"Sampling does boost sales, it boosts awareness of the fruit, repeat sales, repeat purchases," she said.
CarbAmericas analyzes retailers' data to improve mango sales.
"Some give us their category management data, and we can come up with remedies, ideas, or solutions for extra sales or more mangoes in the consumer's basket," Friedman said. "With some, we've seen sales increases of 10% to 30%."
But in general, the most effective method in selling more specialty produce is to educate consumers, he says. CarbAmericas has created a special PLU sticker with purchase triggers. The sticker is large and aims to help the consumer understand the fruit better.
WP Produce offers point of sale signs featuring QR codes that lead customers to the company's website with recipes.
"We also provide information about how to eat, when ripe, etc., especially for lesser-known items," Gonzalez said. "Consumer education is key; if someone has a bad experience with our produce, they might not want to buy it again."
WP Produce also provides bin wraps with illustrations and information and display-ready carts, which are an effective merchandising tool.
Packaging information
Global specialty manufacturers and suppliers rely on packaging to both keep their products in great condition and for communications.
HLB Specialties' 12-ounce rambutan clamshells help the fruit retain moisture, because once picked, it doesn't continue ripening and loses moisture quickly.
"We can show retailers this is an item which can last on the shelf. It can protect the fruit and give some information which is important for items that are less known," Hartmann de Barros said.
When the company started importing rambutan, it was mostly available in bulk and mostly in Asian supermarkets "so non-ethnic consumers weren't familiar with it," she said. But once the company put it in a clamshell with eating instructions and a picture of a dancing rambutan, "it makes it a little friendlier and entices maybe kids to try it."
HLB Specialties has also developed holiday packaging over the years, especially for Halloween. "Because it's such a strange looking fruit, it's a great item for Halloween parties," she said. "So we have a special Halloween PLU that includes nutritional information and eating instructions and a QR code that leads to our website."
It does similar marketing for white and yellow dragon fruit, which come in a clamshell. The 2024 Lunar New Year will be the year of the dragon, "so we made a specific label highlighting the dragon and dragon fruit,” Hartmann de Barros said. Information on the package includes eating instructions and nutritional information.
"For exotic fruits like dragon fruit, education is key to enticing consumers to trying the items," she said.
Value-added bags of asparagus have helped increase sales for CarbAmericas, said Friedman, "because people want to make sure they're buying safer food that's not touched all the time." The bags are also a great vehicle, he added, for pointing out tasting characteristics and nutritional and health values.
"You're able to tell more of a story; you can put your website on it, you can add QR codes, do a number of creative things on a bag," Friedman said.
CarbAmericas is also adding tags onto rubber bands around fruit with a bar code or a cute picture or another kind of purchase trigger.
WP Produce created a two-count bag for its tropical avocados when it discovered a lot of consumers didn't know when they were ripe, since they're different from hass, Gonzalez said. The bag explains when the avocados are ready to eat.
For other products, there's typically a PLU sticker on the front of the fruit with the Desbry logo, and on the back there's a PLU with a recipe, attached to a rubber band.