On Tuesday, United Fresh released its quarterly research report; Fresh Facts on Retail. The report is the second in the series and recaps retail sales trends for the top 10 fruits and vegetable commodities, value-added and convenience produce items, emerging market opportunities such fresh meals and snacks sold in delis, organic produce, and additional analysis for the third quarter of 2008.

Fresh Facts on Retail is sponsored by Del Monte Fresh Produce and produced in partnership with the Perishables Group which tracks and provides analysis of all retails sales data.

Highlights from this quarter’s report include:

·         Benchmarks for the top 10 fruits and vegetable commodities

·         Trends in value-added and convenience produce items

·         Emerging market opportunities such as fresh meals and snacks sold in delis

·         Trends in organic produce

United Fresh released the first issue of Fresh Facts on Retail reports on sales in October 2008, exploring the impact of that year’s Salmonella saintpaul outbreak, and its misinformed attribution to tomatoes. In this quarter’s report, United Fresh delves deeper into the outbreak and explores further the effects on all commodities implicated.

Fresh Facts on Retail is available free of charge to all United Fresh members, and is available for $50 to non-members.   The report can be purchased and downloaded here.

For more information about how to obtain the report or suggestions for future category spotlights, please contact Amy Philpott, vice president of communications, at 202-303-3400.

For questions about specific data contained in the report, please contact Amy Smith at the Perishables Group, at 509-470-6728.