Last updated on August 24th, 2022 at 06:22 pm
IRI, 210 Analytics and IFPA partner monthly to bring the latest trends and analysis relative to the produce department.
“Inflation, COVID and consumer mobility continue to change shopping and consumption patterns,” said Joe Watson, VP, retail, foodservice and wholesale for IFPA.
“The consumer reactions to the current environment combined with supply side volatility are keeping all of us on our toes to understand the latest trends and quickly pivot accordingly.”
July fresh produce sales reached $7.7 billion, surpassing the record set the prior year by 4.2 percent. However, looking beyond dollars that were highly affected by inflation, unit and volume declined versus July 2021. Vegetables were down slightly less than fruit.
Each of the July weeks generated right around $1.5 billion in fresh produce sales. The first week, the holiday week, was the strongest but sales held remarkably steady throughout the month.
“In the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the sales performances of fruit and vegetables were far apart,” said Jonna Parker, team lead fresh at IRI.
“In July, they are converging right around 4 percent dollar growth. Back-to-school shopping is in full swing and that brings about many healthy produce snacking campaigns at retailers around the country in addition to the final weeks of grilling season.”
Fresh fruit added $163 million in sales and vegetables added $147 million when compared to July 2021. Gains were achieved in many different ways. Avocados, peaches, nectarines and plums had very high inflation. Pineapples and apples had below-average inflation, but robust demand pushed their performances into the top 10 in absolute dollar growth in July.
“While berries were the biggest seller in July, the gap with the No. 2, melons, was by far not as big as we’ve seen,” Parker said.
“In part this has to do with below-average inflation, but we also saw cherries come on strong and mixed fruit moving back in the top 10 sellers due to the Fourth of July sales spike. Volume sales were a mix with increases for berries and pineapples but down results for all other top 10 sellers.”
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