Supermarket Perimeter - March 2020 - 53

Produce

Wholesum offers a
variety of heirloom
greenhouse tomatoes
selected for ﬂavor
and shelf life.

What's hot?

FRESH2O, WHOLESUM

Mary-Scott DeMarchis, sales manager for Fresh2o Growers, a hydroponic greenhouse grower in Stevensburg, Virginia, which produces
hydroponic head lettuces mostly, says the company is working on retail
offerings of salad blends this year.
"Our most popular item is the green butter lettuce in a clamshell," she
says. "We package our lettuce with the roots intact, so the product stays
fresher and more nutritious than cut lettuces and ﬁeld-grown lettuces
without roots."
During the end of the winter season, McLean of DelFrescoPure says
the company has been heavily promoting its YES!Berries.
"Our strawberries are available all year long, making sure the consumer always has outrageously sweet strawberries at the ready," she
says. "We will also be pushing our heirloom tomatoes and Euro beans."
DelFrescoPure's best-selling greenhouse vegetable is its bell pepper.
"Bell peppers are a staple in every home - not to mention delicious
and nutritious," she says. "We offer red, yellow and orange peppers. The
three-pack of sweet rainbow peppers and our bulk peppers have the
largest amount of sales. In terms of what commodity we have that gets
the most interest, our strawberries are always sold out!"
Joanna Jaramillo, marketing specialist for Wholesum Family Farms,
Amado, Arizona, says the company has an "exquisite" assortment of
heirloom tomatoes that were carefully selected for superior ﬂavor and
exceptional shelf life.
"Shelf life has often been the Achilles' heel for heirlooms," she says.
"That's why we spent the past year testing out many different varieties
to select the very best to bring to market. Their unique shapes and colors also make them highly attractive for merchandising."
Aside from its heirloom tomatoes, Wholesum Family Farms is promoting its Flavor Lineup - a collection of high-ﬂavor, organic snacking
tomatoes in convenient, eye-catching top seal packaging, Jaramillo says.

"Each pack has a fun name and descriptor ranging from 'Poppies,'
our sweet and snackable cherry tomatoes on the vine to 'Kaleidos,'
our diverse and delightful mixed-color pack of snacking tomatoes,"
she adds.
"This year, we will be moving production of our Valentinos to the
U.S. We are also seeking to expand our supply of snacking tomatoes in
response to the high market demands," Jaramillo continues.

Convenience, local, other trends
Wowryk of NatureFresh Farms says consumers continue to search for
fresh local produce.
"Customers want fresher and more ﬂavorful food and are also
going more sustainable where they are becoming more conscious of
packaging and noticing that local food means a lighter environmental
footprint," he says. "We are able to meet these demands having greenhouses located near our customers in multiple locations allowing us to
grow year-round."
Convenience food and products are also becoming more popular
within the market as consumers want easy on-the-go meal solutions,
Wowryk adds.
"We are seeing an increase in demand for more snackable varieties
and have successfully met those demands through our snacking lineups," he says.
DeMarchis of Fresh2o Growers agrees that sustainability and locally
grown are consumer preferences that are driving growth.
"We ship lettuces on the East Coast, which is must closer than
California or Arizona, where most of the country's lettuce comes from,"
she says.
"We grow in a state-of-the-art greenhouse where we conserve 90%
more water than ﬁeld grown crops and have zero runoff and limited
environmental impact," DeMarchis continues. "Our lettuce is also grown

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