Archive For The “News” Category
600 consumers preferred nutrition and sensory over other themes when participating in a Hass Avocado Board marketing study, Engaging and Influencing Shoppers at Shelf.
20 messages were among other themes in the study, which was intended for use on retail display shelves, signs and point-of-sale materials, and were a call to action and usage or occasion.
“Our goal was to ascertain message themes that resonate most with consumers, and in particular, understand which messaging within each theme motivates purchases of hass avocados,” Emiliano Escobedo, executive director of the Irvine, Calif.-based board, said in a news release.
Under the sensory theme, “Naturally Delicious” was the most popular tagline and most likely to motivate purchase. The consumers, all primary shoppers, were drawn by the promise of taste and the sense of “real” food that “may be good for you,” the study cited.
Among the nutrition messages, “Naturally Good Fats” was the top choice, deemed simple, important and believable. Also popular were “Cholesterol Free” and “Good Fat in Avocados Can Replace Saturated Fat.”
It found ratings varied by consumption level, with “super heavy” and heavy users — who buy 120-plus or 37-plus avocados per year, respectively — responding more positively overall to shelf messaging. The study also included medium buyers, who purchase 12 to 36 avocados annually.
Each tagline was tested with identical graphics.
As a second objective, the study measured reactions to everyday category signs. Messages tested were “Fresh Avocados,” “Hass Avocados,” and “Ripe Avocados.” Of those, the former was the most likely to drive purchases.
“The information in this study is intended to help retailers enhance their messaging to appeal to their core market,” Escobedo said in the release. “In-store presentation and messaging are important factors influencing the shopper’s decision to purchase hass avocados.”
Stanley Farms of Vidalia, GA has been placed on one year’s probation by the Georgia Department of Agriculture because it improperly stored other yellow onions at its Vidalia facility. However, it has been cleared by the GDA of accusations that it packed non-Vidalia onions in Vidalia-branded bags.
No evidence was found during its five-week investigation that non-Vidalias were on the packing equipment at Stanley Farms’ facility in Vidalia, Ga., when Vidalia onions were being packed.
“What we did find was improper storage of organic yellow onions in a Vidalia (onion) packing facility,” said Gary Black, GDA commissioner. “We promptly responded with a hold on those onions until all inventory could be traced and accounted for, preventing the onions from entering the retail fresh market.”
The department required Stanley Farms to move 285 field bins of non-Vidalia onions to another facility where they were held under seal. Black said Stanley Farms and members of the Stanley family fully complied with all of the department’s directions and requests during the investigation.
Commissioner Black said the department and the grower-shipper signed a consent agreement that includes a one-year probationary period. If another infraction of the same kind is found during that year, the operation could lose its Vidalia onion license, he said.
Vidalia onions – grossing about $3000 to Chicago; $3300 to New York City.
An 11.3 percent jump in in the organic category has been reported by the organic industry.
The trend is not restricted to any particular region.
“[Organic] doesn’t have any demographic boundaries,” Organic Trade Association (OTA) Chief Executive Laura Batcha said, according to the Washington Business Journal. “This additional new data [shows] it doesn’t have regional or partisan boundaries.”
Leading the organic pack is produce. Organic fruits and vegetables reigned in about $13 billion in 2014, making up more than 36 percent of all organic food sales.
The growth has resulted in the USDA creating a new database to make it possible for sumers to track companies to organic certifications, according to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“The more diverse type of operations and the more growing market sectors we have in American agriculture, the better off our country’s rural economy will be,” Vilsack said, according to The Times-Picayune,while anticipating a positive impact on agriculture.
The OCT also found that organic produce in stores has doubled in the last decade, now occupying 12 percent of all produce available in the aisles. This could be in direct response to demand, as the association also reported that the majority of American households nationwide now endeavor to make organic food purchases while shopping retail, the Washington Business Journal reports.
Publix and Trader Joe’s for the third year in a row, have been ranked by shoppers as their favorite grocery stores.
A Market Force study of 7,200 shoppers conducted online in April ranked the Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s first, the Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Super Markets Inc., second and the Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi Inc., third, according to a Trader Joe’s news release.
The survey studied consumers’ grocery shopping habits and preferences, rating Trader Joe’s at 78% in consumer satisfaction and Publix at 74%.
Rounding out the top fiver were Aldi, Hy-Vee Food Stores Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa, and H.E.B., San Antonio. Among the top brands were Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s and WinCo Foods and Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club who made this year’s list after failing to garner enough mentions in 2014, according to the release.
Publix and Trader Joe’s led in many areas, including cashier courtesy, fast checkouts and cleanliness, while Aldi, WinCo and Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash., took the top spots in the value category.
Shop-Rite Supermarkets, Edison, N.J., scored highest for sales and promotions while H.E.B, Hy-Vee and Kroger Co., Cincinnati, performed well in most areas.
Other study findings: nearly half prefer to buy organic products, 28% are buying prepared foods at least weekly, up 10% from 2014 and 39% have used a grocery app, primarily for coupons.
Louisville, Colo.-based Market Force is a global customer intelligence company that provides information for retailers, restaurants, financial institutions, entertainment studios and consumer packaged goods companies.
Despite a mayoral pledge to revitalize operations, the nearly two-decade battle to modernize the Hunts Point Terminal Market’s distribution facilities appears no closer to completion.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in early March announced his administration plans to invest $150 million over 12 years to revitalize aging operations. However some Hunts Point wholesalers say the mayor wasn’t specifically talking about the Hunts Point Produce Terminal.
Instead, the mayor’s announcement was neighborhood-specific and was referring to all the food markets on the Hunts Point peninsula, which include the Fulton Fish Market and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, which is also known as the Hunts Point Meat Market. When one does the math, $150 million over 12 years doesn’t amount to much and isn’t considered remarkable.
The $150 million isn’t anywhere near the $800 million needed to modernize operations, although the city is spending money to improve the market. It is pointed out that a $21 million project constructing railroad sidings alongside the market’s buildings and constructing an open-air rail shed on the market’s east side for freight car unloading is underway.
At the 329-acre facility, 115 wholesalers that employ more than 8,000 workers distribute from the market’s four buildings that were constructed in the late 1960s. Talks to move distributors out of the aging 500,000-square-foot market began in 2000.
Washington produce rates on apples, cherries – grossing about $7400 to New York City.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
Nathel & Nathel Inc. has expanded operations on the Hunts Point Terminal Market located in the South Bronx of New York City.
The New York-based wholesaler has added refrigeration capacity, reconfigured its fruit and vegetable divisions and improved its docks for truck loading and unloading. Following the closure of Krisp-Pak Sales Corp. in 2012, Nathel & Nathel took over its units and was working on closing on the purchase of units from the defunct Korean Farm, which went out of business in 2014.
Nathel & Nathel now distributes produce from to 23 units.
The distributor also upgraded the warehouse to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point standards.
Better refrigeration control in different zones will result from the improvements, according to company vice president Sheldon Nathel said. It also should result in better temperature control for fruits and vegetables as well as better organize the operation, making it more efficient.
Nathel & Nathel sells a full line of fruits and vegetables, including tropicals and specialties, to customers throughout the Tri-State region.
The Hunts Point Terminal Market occupies 329 acres and supports 115 private wholesalers that employ over 8,000 people.
Hunts Point wholesalers are paying a freight rate of about $5000 from the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas for fruits and vegetables, and about $4800 for Idaho potatoes.
by The Alliance for Food and Farming
Watsonville, CA – The Consumers Union has released yet another produce “shoppers’ guide” list that can only contribute to increased consumer confusion about healthy dietary choices.
he article in Consumer Reports categorizes certain produce items that have been proven very safe as “high risk.” This categorization comes despite the Consumers Union’s own admission that half of the produce sampled by the USDA had no detectable residues at all. If residues were detected, the majority came in at levels well below Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tolerances (99.8%).
Further, both USDA and EPA state that “residues do not pose a food safety concern.”
“For all of us involved in promoting better consumer health, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables is among our main objectives. The benefits of consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables is absolutely indisputable. Consumers should eat both organic and conventionally grown produce without worrying about minute levels of pesticide residues,” says Dr. Carl Keen, Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at University of California, Davis.
“Despite the best efforts of the government, health experts and nutritionists, consumption of fruits and veggies has stagnated. Telling consumers one moment that certain produce items are ‘high risk’ and the very next advising them to ‘eat more’ is confusing and cannot be helpful with efforts to increase consumption for improved health,” says Marilyn Dolan, Executive Director of the Alliance for Food and Farming.
Most recently, a peer reviewed study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health showed that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of premature death by 42%, heart disease by 31% and cancer by 25%.
Recently, a new peer reviewed study conducted by the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future found that conflicting messaging on food safety and nutrition may be having a detrimental impact on the dietary choices of consumers, especially those with lower incomes. Researchers involved in the study recommended that “those who want to improve food production techniques and those who want to improve nutrition cooperate to create consistent messaging about healthy eating for the benefit of consumers.”
“The science is clear that the best advice for consumers is also the simplest – eat more conventional and organic produce for better health,” Dolan says. “And, if you are concerned about residues, wash your produce.
The Alliance for Food and Farming is a non-profit organization formed in 1989 which represents organic and conventional farmers and farms of all sizes. Alliance contributors are limited to farmers of fruits and vegetables, companies that sell, market or ship fruits and vegetables or organizations that represent produce farmers. Our mission is to deliver credible information to consumers about the safety of fruits and vegetables. The Alliance does not engage in any lobbying activities, nor do we accept any money or support from the pesticide industry.
Kenny Lund doesn’t argue with the American Trucking Associations annual study, American Trucking Trends, which shows independent truckers and leased owner operators making $56,167 on average in 2014, which was 7 percent more income than the previous year. However, the vice president of operations for the Allen Lund Company, a third party logistics provider, says freight rates still aren’t increasing enough and operating costs are high.
For example, gasoline in California is $4 per gallon, while Number 2 diesel is about $3.50 per gallon. Take on excessive government regulations, plus an economy that leaves a lot to be desired, and Lund doesn’t see the freight rates keeping up with other costs.
“Truckers are making more money, but the rates aren’t up as much as expected, and the economy was expected to be much stronger,” Lund says.
He points out produce trucking is still dominated by companies with five trucks or less.
“God bless the owner operators out there. They don’t realize collectively what they do for this country and how important they are,” Lund surmises. “We try to convey that as a company and treat these owner operators with the respect they deserve. They are a critical component in the economic system of the U.S.”
He recently heard someone point out if all access to Los Angeles was cut off, there is only a four-day supply of food available. Lund calls that thought “sobering” and notes people just do not realize what a great transportation system has been built in this country due to all of the small companies working together.
“With the efficient distribution system throughout the U.S., you can pretty much get strawberries anywhere in the U.S. the year around, and this is true with most major commodities,” he says.
ALC Logistics
As for Allen Lund Company, he is particularly excited about a division of the firm, ALC Logistics. He developed the company’s Transportation Management System, building it from the ground up. It is the first one created and provides software solutions ranging from claims management to freight audits, and carrier contracts, among other features.
“It is pretty exciting. We are running about $1.4 billion through the system, working with the companies we have now, and we are just getting started,” Lund says.
As for the trucking industry itself, Lund is very interested in the development of driverless trucks. For example the technology is now available where you can follow someone on I-40 from New Mexico to Arkansas and never touch the steering wheel. He sees this addressing problems associated with hours of service regulations.
“I think we’re only five years or less away from it (driverless trucks),” he notes.
“If you can sell this to the driver by saying you are almost out of hours, then you put it on auto pilot. The driver can then go to sleep while the truck is moving down the road, and have your hours still available when you arrive at destination,” Lund observes. “It makes the single drivers like teams.”
(This is part II of a two-part series. The Allen Lund Company was formed in 1976 by its namesake. I have known Mr. Allen Lund nearly since the founding of the company. His son Kenny Lund joined the company 26 years ago this month. At that time the operation had 32 employees. Today Allen Lund Company has 500 employees, arranges about 250,000 loads a year, of which about 40 percent is with fresh produce. The company has 30 offices nationwide and will soon break the $500 million mark in annual sales. — Bill Martin)