In addition, she says retailers have indicated that fruit and
vegetable “volume” is up, but “sales” are down, “meaning they’re
not making as much as they were last year, but they’re moving
more through the store. This is presumably because more people
are eating at home and not eating out.”
The United Fresh Produce Association has also been
keeping close tabs on shifts in consumer purchases throughout
the last year. In June, the association’s first quarterly research
report, Fresh Facts on Retail, showed that as the economy
slowed, so too did sales of some types of value added produce.

“This information helps to provide the industry with reliable benchmarks for produce sales and most importantly an accurate look at the overall retail landscape,” said United Fresh President Tom Stenzel in a press release at the time.

Highlights from the report showed that:
• Average retail prices of fruits and vegetables increased
1.5% compared to Q1 2008

• Weekly dollar sales of packaged salads fell by nearly 5%, while bulk lettuce sales rose 6.9%

• Three of the top 10 fresh fruits, berries, grapes and
avocados, increased in volume
• Despite an increase in average price, bananas remained
the lowest priced commodity at $0.64

• Weekly sales of fresh-cut fruit fell by 12%, however fresh-cut fruit still owned the majority of the value-added fruit category at 72.4%

• Sales and volume of organic fruit jumped around 10%

“As the economy takes its
toll, American families are
tightening their belts and
spending less on everything,
including food.”

– tom Stenzel, United Fresh

 

Additionally, the report focused on the consumer’s shift toward more conservative spending, and a corresponding shift to less-expensive produce categories and varieties. “As the economy takes its toll, American families are tightening their belts and spending less on everything, including food,” said Stenzel.

As the consumption numbers continued to fall during the summer, retailers nationwide started taking a harder look at how they could ease the burden of a tough economy by increasing in-store promotions and lowering prices of fruits and vegetables.

United Fresh’s second quarter Fresh Facts on Retail measured
retail price and sales volume trends for the top 10 fruit and vegetable
commodities, as well as value-added, organic and other produce
categories and the results showed noticeably lower prices:
• The average price point for all produce was 3% lower in
Q2 2009 than in Q2 2008, and overall volume increased
2% compared to last year