Portable produce brands at retail draw consumers

Snacks used to be only candy or chips, but advances in the marketing of fresh produce have helped to break down that sugary, salty wall.

Many fruits and vegetables are easily eaten as snacks; many are packaged and sold for that purpose. Branded snack packages of produce may be small, but the sales boom is huge, according to D. Gail Fleenor, contributing author for Store Brands' sister publication Progressive Grocer.

Snackable fruits and vegetables accounted for sales of $16.3 billion in the year ended May 27, 2017, according to Nielsen. When iffy items that could be used as ingredients and not just snacks, such as bananas, were subtracted and an “on the go” subcategory was developed, sales over the same period were $1.1 billion. On-the-go snacks posted a compound annual growth rate of more than 10 percent every year between 2012 and 2016. 

Manufacturers and retailers have introduced 900 new snacking items during this period, with 600 being individual servings of fresh-cut fruit — with and without additional items.

To read Fleenor's article, click here.