WENATCHEE, WA - Consistency is a key element of success, and in Stemilt’s recent episode of Fast Facts: The Cast, the apple purveyor shared how regular promotions of Granny Smith apples and other core varieties can help retailers boost sales. Additionally, the company highlighted the rise in category dollars over the 12 weeks from December 5, 2021, to February 26, 2022, based on Nielsen data.

“Apple dollars went up another percent over the last 12-week period, which is pretty striking and good to see,” said Jocelyn Gerard, Merchandising Manager. “We know that has to do with some of the inflationary factors and supply and demand.”

Throughout the produce department, data shows that apples made up 6 percent of dollars on a total U.S. basis, a press release explained. Due to smaller crop and food inflation, apple dollars are up 8 percent nationally in just one year. Organic apples made up 12 percent of category volume nationally and 16 percent of category sales during this 12-week period. In the Northwest region, organics hit 15 percent of apple volume and 20.5 percent of sales during the period.

“The total produce department is holding steady at 6 percent of total produce sales,” said Brianna Shales, Marketing Director. “When we looked at the top varieties, we saw that these numbers remained unchanged. We did see some amazing double-digit growth in Red Delicious and Pink Lady^® apples, with dollars up 40 percent on Pink Lady compared to a year ago at this time.”

Based on the Nielsen data, the top six apples by volume pounds sold were Gala at 22 percent, Honeycrisp at 19.7 percent, Fuji at 11.6 percent, Granny Smith at 10.7 percent, Red Delicious at 9.2 percent, and Pink Lady at 5.6 percent.

“Granny Smith apples were up in dollars 4.4 percent, but down in pounds almost 7 percent,” added Gerard. “This is a really strong time for Granny Smith as far as supply and quality go, and that can be concerning because last period was a similar type of direction. I want to call out Granny Smith as a great option for retailers to promote right now to capture some of those bulk sales that they’ve been winning at so far this season.”

Bagged apple retailers have grown twice as fast as bulk.

When looking at bagged options, the 3 lb size drove 70 percent of apple volumes that sold in bags nationally and 29 percent of total apple pounds sold.

Want more insight from Stemilt on this 12-week period? Click here.

For more category updates, keep reading AndNowUKnow.

Stemilt