Category: Analysis

The fresh produce industry is humming as the first day of fall rapidly approaches (at least for us plan-two-weeks-ahead produce folks). Demand is increasing for seasonal items, such as pumpkins, hard squash and apples.

September is National Food Safety Education Month and while our industry seems to live and breathe food safety, the upcoming focus on it does beg the question – how much do consumers know and understand about food safety?

I will make a confession: I hate PLU labels. When I take them off apples, for example, unless I immediately throw them in the trash, they get stuck to the kitchen counter and have to be peeled off a second time.

While astronauts watch from space as California wildfires spew smoke, the fresh produce industry is also keeping a birds-eye view on blazes in the golden state.

Every now and then, it’s a good idea to step back and look at the proverbial Big Picture.

The following graphic was produced by Agtools Inc. {{BB #:355102}} to show that the U.S. apple crop has produced the lowest volume this year as it has in the past seven years.

This past year has been particularly interesting—if “interesting” is the right word—for watching how retailers have adapted and adjusted to the new normal with respect to the pandemic.

While it’s easy to see that the pandemic changed the way consumers look at grocery shopping, both in store and online, it’s harder to project where they go from here. Idaho Falls-based research firm Category Partners has a breakdown for that with two new consumer surveys.

It sounds as if it belongs in the infinite cache of rejected names for rock bands: banana extinction.