Carrot Country

Innovative Carrot Products Sparking Demand

Carrot Country
Fall 2007

By Lisa Lieberman

Demand for carrots in the United States has increased from 6.4 pounds per person in the mid 1980s to 8.9 pounds per person in 2005. One of the reasons carrot consumption has increased so much is because American consumers have become more health conscious and convenience minded and the carrot industry has stepped up to help service its expectations.

In recent years, the explosion of new carrot products, including baby carrots, carrot chips, carrot crinkles, coins and shreds have made it easier for consumers to snack on fresh carrots as well as cook them.

Pre-cut Products
“Several years ago, when we introduced baby carrots, they caught on like crazy,” says Wes Obert, marketing coordinator for Bolthouse Farms, Bakersfi eld, Calif. “Since then, we’ve also added other pre-cut items. Includes are julienne carrots, ideal for stir fry and salads, and carrot chips, perfect for entertaining and dips.”

Carrots are also finding a home in more areas of the foodservice market, including schools and restaurants. More chefs are cooking with pre-cut carrots, which helps save labor as well as shipping costs; pre-cut carrots weigh less than whole carrots. Schools are stressing the benefits of healthy eating and are trying to ban or limit soda and candy bar snack machines. They also are showing more interest in carrots.
“We have a growing foodservice team at Bolthouse that works with schools. Schools are trying to create healthier options for kids, so we’ve been selling them more carrots,” Obert says.

Although carrot juice has been a big hit at the retail level, Bolthouse’s fruit smoothies have been even bigger sellers at schools since children seem to prefer fruit juice to carrot juice, he says. Grimmway Farms is also expanding its presence in the retail and foodservice markets, according to Phil Gruszka, Grimmway’s vice president of marketing. Sales for valueadded and organic products are increasing in the double digits each year.

Organic Market Additions
“There aren’t necessarily a lot more people in the market becoming aware of pre-cut carrots,” Gruszka observes. “What we’re doing is continuing to add value to the product by taking a lot of the carrot pieces and making them into organic pieces as well under the Cal-Organic and Bunny-Luv labels.”

Grimmway also has recently added a new microwavable bag of carrot tips.

“It’s a great product, and people are really clamoring for them. It’s an all-plastic bag and doesn’t blow up or melt in the microwave,” Gruszka explains.

Baby carrots are still one of Grimmway’s top sellers as far as pre-cut carrots go. “We do a three-pack consumer pack that comes with a cup of dip. It does better toward the end of the summer when parents are packing more lunches for their kids,” Gruszka acknowledges.

Grimmway is marketing some of its convenience packs to the organic market. The company recently introduced an organic 10, two-ounce convenience carrot pack. One of the challenges in promoting organic and pre-cut carrots is simply getting retailers to display them more prominently.

“Retailers realize that if they can’t find the products, they can’t buy them,” Gruszka notes. “Because of that, more retailers are setting up special sections for convenience and pre-packaged vegetables.”

Some retailers place pre-cut carrots alongside regular bunch carrots while others will place them in the pre-packaged vegetable sections. Certain retailers believe carrots are a good color break in the produce aisle, which is why it’s not uncommon to see baby carrots, carrot chips, cello and jumbo carrots sometimes spread out among all the dark green vegetables in the produce sections.

Robert Schueller, assistant marketing director for Melissa’s, Los Angeles, says the company’s organic carrots and vegetables sales are growing 15 to 20 percent every year, and this trend is expected to continue.

Innovative Products
Melissa’s offers a standard peeled dipping carrot, about an inch-and-a-half to two inches long, as well as a French baby carrot that’s peeled and has an edible stem. The latter product also comes in a microwavable package, Schueller says.

“Once the produce is bought, the consumer doesn’t need to peel, wash or do any other prep work, or even take it out of the package for that matter,” he explains. “The plastic on top of the package is already perforated, so the consumer doesn’t need to do anything besides eat it.”

Right now, Melissa’s is selling the microwavable French baby carrots in about 20 states.

“You’ll see these carrots in many conventional supermarkets,” Schueller says. “The big challenge is going to be distribution, though, because handlers have to be careful that these carrots remain in the cold chain the whole time.”

Karen Caplan, president of Frieda’s, another specialty produce distributor in Los Angeles, notes that even though carrots aren’t generally a big category for her, she’s been seeing an increase in specialty carrot variety sales.

“We do real baby carrots in bunches of four to six carrots with the tops left on,” Caplan details. “These are really popular with restaurants. We also do different colored carrots, i.e., maroon and white. They seem to be an increasing category.”