MONTEREY, CA – With health and convenience trends converging in the produce aisle, new value-added mushroom products are sure to resonate with time-strapped and health-conscious consumers. I recently had a chance to chat with Mike O’Brien, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Monterey Mushrooms to learn how the company is helping its customers capitalize on the opportunity with its latest retail offering—Let’s Blend. 

“Everybody knows about the trend The Blend, blending chopped, diced mushrooms with ground beef, ground turkey, ground pork—makes it healthier and tastes better,” Mike explains. “However, sometimes that’s a little difficult because to get the consumer to chop the mushrooms up, to cook them, takes time. And we know convenience is important, so we came up with a new product called ‘Let’s Blend.’”

The pre-diced, pre-seasoned Let’s Blend line offers consumers three different varieties of ready-to-go fresh mushrooms—in a convenient, high-graphic pouched package.

“We’ve got three flavors,” Mike continues, “Classic—which is the burger, Italian—which is for your meatballs, and Mexican—for tacos. I think the consumer is going to love it, and people will be healthier, and they’ll be eating mushrooms; they’ll be part of their everyday diet.”

For more, watch our video interview above. And stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more on new product offerings in the produce aisle.

Monterey Mushrooms

RIO GRANDE, TX - The Rio Grande is seeing its first snowfall in about 13 years, and while it could put a slight pause on harvest, the majority of the reception is disbelief at the rarity of a white blanket as Christmas approaches.

“We woke up to a sight we have not seen since 2004. Snow!” Tommy Wilkins, Director of Sales for Grow Farms Texas, shares with me. “While some are excited by this rare event, harvest schedules are delayed. The impact to crops at this point appears minimal, but we are closely watching the weather.”

Other sources, too, report that crops are looking good thus far as of 9 a.m. this morning PST, though cold temperatures the last couple of days could slow harvest. The National Weather Service reports cooler temperatures in the mid to low 30s for the McAllen area the last 48 hours, with light snow and fog this morning.

“On another note, rain and cooler weather help cabbage and fall crop, but we may see light leaf burn some the tender greens,” Tommy shares. “Luckily, we have quality inspections in place to address any challenges that may arise.”

At this point it looks as though the industry is not anticipating any supply outages related to the weather, and the forecast for the region does not look to keep the powder on the ground. The sun will likely return this weekend with temperatures in the higher 60s.

AndNowUKnow will follow this and other weather systems that could affect produce, so stay tuned.

WATSONVILLE, CA - If you ask me, it’s berry time...all the time. And if you ask the California Giant Berry Farms team, I’d imagine they’d say the same. Between retail and consumer promotions to build both the category and demand, a new data driven website, fundraisers, and another successful Tour de Fresh, California Giant has had an incredible 2017 to look back on and a busy 2018 to plan. With berries always top-of-mind for today’s consumer, I spoke with Vice President of Marketing Cindy Jewell to touch on the company’s current strawberry growing regions, the challenges and the opportunities, and what we can expect as we move toward Christmas.

“Currently, strawberry volumes are tight as they typically are during this time of year, but we expect supplies to remain steady as we move between our different growing operations,” Cindy shares with me. “Oxnard is still a developing story since the fires in Southern California are still both ongoing and moving due to the effect of continued winds. The priority for our operations in Oxnard is to ensure we don’t have workers in the field due to the smoke in the area. However, they are hoping to walk our fields in Oxnard some time next week for the first time to harvest new berries for the 2018 season. No real volume is expected from that region really, until closer to the end of the year.”

California Giant is still harvesting the company’s fall crop in Santa Maria, California, for the next couple of weeks since the weather is still so mild. The daytime temperatures are sitting comfortably in the high 70s for the next couple of weeks with lows getting cooler and moving into the low 40s.

“With these types of conditions, we should continue to get decent volume in Santa Maria through Christmas,” Cindy adds.

Florida is expecting a cold front next week, she notes, which could slow things down a little, but real volume in that region will really kick in by the beginning of January and most likely peak in mid-February for California Giant. In the meantime, Mexico is ramping up volume and the area has experienced some good weather, so each week, as Cindy shares, volume continues to increase with numbers looking good for the new year if conditions remain mild.

“Demand is steady right now and will most likely remain that way through the holidays,” Cindy anticipates. “To address demand and to try and shift consumer trends, we do a lot of social media and promotional activity to show how well berries fit into the holiday spread and we are also showcasing recipes that fall into the category. We are also running a Stocking Stuffers consumer campaign and sweepstakes and giving away a few of our ‘favorite things’ this holiday season.”

For the promotion, consumers can enter to win one of six prizes including a $100 Visa Gift Card for last minute holiday shopping, a Kitchenaid Mixer to inspire folks to mix up their own berry creations, and even a Fitbit to help shoppers meet their health goals in 2018. The Stocking Stuffers promotion will help to continue generating berry excitement around the category for California Giant’s retail partners and its vast fan-following.

For more on the strawberry category and leading-edge berry growers throughout our industry, stay tuned to the latest and greatest from AndNowUKnow.

And to all our industry friends, family, and loved ones affected, and still being affected, by the fires in Southern California, we are keeping you in our thoughts during this difficult time.

California Giant Berry Farms

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Fresh produce advocates The Produce Moms™ today announced a 500 percent increase in the company’s network after adopting the ActiveCampaign, a leader in intelligence-driven marketing and sales automation. In an effort to help others improve their marketing, The Produce Moms shared the success of the ActiveCampaign in a customer spotlight video.

“The growth we’ve had this year through our marketing communications has been instrumental thanks to ActiveCampaign and their dedicated team members who have supported The Produce Moms,” said Lori Taylor, CEO of The Produce Moms, in a press release. “We’re continuing to grow our strategic approach to provide each of our audiences with the content that matters most to them.”

With the goal of effectively reaching families who are looking for healthy options, The Produce Moms leads with the mindset of “marketing on a mission,” and by switching to ActiveCampaign, The Produce Moms fulfilled that goal by drawing customers to the right content and messages based on each audience’s preferences.

“The Produce Moms is a great example of how marketing automation can benefit a small business,” said Edward Angstadt, Vice President of Marketing at ActiveCampaign. “By effectively distributing the right content to the right audience, Lori and her team have been able to grow their network and customer base using the educational materials they were already creating.”

To learn more about how The Produce Moms is using ActiveCampaign, check out the details here. For more produce industry news like this, keep checking back with AndNowUKnow.

The Produce Moms

SEATTLE, WA - Amazon’s latest venture shows yet more interest in fresh produce and boosting consumers’ taste for them. The cyber retailer has a new patent to digitally recommend gardening items for consumers looking to add a home touch to their salads, enabling shoppers to take photos of their gardening projects to upload with additional notes for Amazon recommendations.

“For example, image and non image data about a garden may be received and analyzed,” the company patent states in its abstract for its Garden Service. “Identification of garden items from the garden and related constraints may be determined accordingly. The identifications and the constraints may be used to recommend uses of the garden items and/or to recommend additional garden items that may be ordered and used in conjunction with garden items.”

With capabilities like identifying plants growing in the garden, as well as possible impediments, the Garden Service provides the added ability of providing recipes matched with those items. The technology can also, according to the patent, assess the gardening parameters and then generate a model for the garden that identifies the current plants and constraints for new plants for the user.

Farmville in your backyard, anyone?

The retailer notes that a network-based resource may provide a user experience “unmatched by a traditional brick and mortar store,” and could give a broader base working with different suppliers.

“For example, the network-based resource may offer a larger and more diverse selection of items. Further, for some of the items, there may be a number of sellers with different offers. As such, a consumer may not only obtain items from an available rich selection, but may also obtain the items at the most convenient offers,” the patent notes.

Amazon provides a full breakdown and diagram of the Garden Service in its patent filing here. With more and more facets of its business reaching into fresh produce and food services, AndNowUKnow will keep an eye out for the latest.

Amazon

GOODLETTSVILLE, TN - Buzz surrounding Dollar General’s high-growth strategy has been loud over the past few fiscal years, and it looks like 2018 will be no exception. In a release touting the retailer’s double-digit sales increases during its Q3, CEO Todd Vasos reaffirmed Dollar General’s plan to continue investing in new stores and remodels.

"We remain excited about the future for Dollar General,” said Vasos. “For fiscal 2018, we have plans to execute approximately 2,000 real estate projects comprised of 900 new stores, 1,000 store remodels, and 100 store relocations. We continue to believe that investing in the business through our high-return new store growth is the best use of our capital to help drive long-term shareholder value. Our new store growth is complemented with a significant increase in our store remodel program from fiscal 2017 that we view as an investment to enhance and consistently deliver on our brand promise to help our customers save time and money every day.”

And with the help of this strong quarterly report, it looks as if Dollar General will be well-prepared to take on the 2,000-project challenge. Q3 net sales increased 11.0 percent, reaching $5.90 billion. This is up from Q3 2016’s sales number of $5.32 billion. The company noted in its release that this increase in sales was positively affected by sales from new stores, and modestly offset by sales from closed stores.

"We are pleased with our overall third quarter results, which include a strong same-store sales growth of 4.3% and increases in both average transaction amount and customer traffic over the 2016 third quarter,” Vasos said. “During the quarter, we effectively balanced our same-store sales growth while achieving gross profit rate expansion and continuing our planned investments in the business.

In addition to the sales increase, the following other areas were highlights of Dollar General’s Q3 financial report:

• Gross profit, as a percentage of net sales, was 29.9 percent in the 2017 third quarter, an increase of eight basis points from the 2016 third quarter
• Net income was $253 million, or $0.93 per diluted share, up from $235 million, or $0.84 per diluted share, in the 2016 third quarter
• Total additions to property and equipment in the 39-week period ended November 3, 2017 were $489 million
• The Company opened 1,044 new stores and remodeled or relocated 719 stores. The new store growth includes the rebannering of 263 store locations acquired in the second quarter of 2017

AndNowUKnow is keeping a close eye on Dollar General as it seeks to take over U.S. soil with new and remodeled store locations. Stay tuned for continued updates!

Dollar General

DELTA, CANADA - Caroling is not the only way people are teaming up this holiday season to bring joy to those around them. Village Farms and Produce for Kids joined forces to bring consumers a multi-faceted campaign that includes a blog and four recipes that will offer visitors simple, easy, and delicious ways to incorporate fresh produce into their holiday spreads. Through their campaign, the two will be collecting market research data with three separate giveaway prizes that will go through the blog and social media push.

“The holidays are a time when friends and family of all ages are coming together to cook, eat, and spend time together,” said Helen L. Aquino, Director of Brand Marketing & Communications for Village Farms, in a recent press release. “We wanted to create healthy holiday recipe options incorporating tomatoes that would appeal to the whole family.”

With this campaign, the two are hoping to highlight the versatility of healthy options, like Village Farms’ year-round item Garden Fresh Flavor® tomatoes, which bring to meals during the cooler months. This tomato variety, for example, can be cooked, grilled, or roasted—whatever your heart desires! Recipes in the series include Sinfully Sweet Campari® puff pastry appetizers, Cabernet Estate Reserve® mini quiche, True Rebel Mix® mini pizzas, and a Heavenly Villagio Marzano® Rudolph grilled cheese sandwich.

“Increasing consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is of paramount importance to us,” said Amanda Keefer, Director of Marketing Communications for Produce for Kids. “This series of recipes will do just that, and the fun activities will engage and encourage kids to eat their vegetables during a time when candy and cookies generally rule.”

The blog is accessible on both organizations’ websites, www.produceforkids.com or www.villagefarms.com. Consumers can join in on the fun by entering to win prizes—all in an effort to support food security and help prevent hunger!

While that’s enough to make any holiday season seem warmer, Produce for Kids is also celebrating its shop going live. Now that it is up-and-running, it will showcase the organization’s team, bloggers, and registered dieticians to offer visitors selection with wisdom backing it up! On top of the exciting debut of its shop, the organization is also excited to announce its upcoming initiative, Get Re-Inspired with the Power Your Lunchbox Promise, which will be rolled out later this month.

How will this collaboration, launched shop, and upcoming campaign inspire consumers this holiday season and beyond? AndNowUKnow will keep you up-to-date with the latest fresh produce industry news.

Village Farms Produce for Kids

AVONDALE, PA – To-Jo Mushrooms is embracing “The Spirit of Yes” this season and working with its partners in produce to drive sales and grow the mushroom category.

I recently had a chance to chat up Peter Wilder and find out more about To-Jo’s collaborative and innovative attitude to mushrooms.

“To-Jo is focused on customer service; We treat all of our customers as a partner,” Peter explains. “It’s in our mission statement—‘The Spirit of Yes.’ To-Jo believes on finding solutions for our customers, and then working together to collaborate and come out with a new product or a new promotional program that helps support those goals…we are always looking for that next innovation.”

Peter tells me that To-Jo is seeing growth throughout the category—particularly with brown mushrooms like To-Jo’s 16 oz and 20 oz baby bellas, and with The Blend becoming more mainstream, he tells me, the category is primed to continue driving sales in produce departments and foodservice venues.

“We’re seeing more culinarians and chefs using [mushrooms] in videos, and in restaurants the menu mentions are way up as well,” Peter adds.

For more, watch our exclusive interview with Peter above.

And for more produce news, stick with AndNowUKnow.

To-Jo Mushrooms