Market Trends

Grocery shoppers are looking more closely ethical food claims for practical as well as altruistic reasons, according to a recent national survey by San Francisco Bay area-based strategic marketing communications firm Context Marketing.

From sustainability and farm labor issues to the latest retail trends and insight from award-winning chefs, United Fresh 2010, slated for April 20 through April 23 in Las Vegas, will feature education for each segment of the fresh and fresh-cut produce industry.

Although fresh produce is characteristically at its most glorious during the warmer months, our friends at Colchester, Vt.-based MyWebGrocer shared a rundown of recent insightful produce category sales data bearing out the proposition that fresh fruits and vegetables and are a ripe antidote for winter-weary shoppers.

After nine months in the making, Edina, Minn.-based Lund Food Holdings Inc. (LFI) — the family-owned operator of 10 Lunds and 11 Byerly’s supermarkets throughout the Twin Cities and their surrounding area, celebrated the grand reopening of the first-ever Byerly’s store at 5725 Duluth Street in Golden Valley, Minn., this week, after an extensive and extreme makeover.

Food safety legislation awaits movement in Congress, and consumers have high-profile food product recalls fresh in their minds.

In the days leading up to the Annual Meat Conference that’s about to get underway this weekend in Orlando, Fla., I’m pleased to present a preview of the hot-off-the-press findings of Progressive Grocer’s 2010 Meat and Seafood Operations Reviews.

The tide is finally turning for favorable seafood category sales, which rose 10 percent in the past year among Progressive Grocer’s annual Seafood Operations Review participants, according to the latest findings of exclusive research compiled in PG’s 2010 Annual Seafood Operations Review.

In the aftermath of widespread devastation caused by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, our hearts go out to residents of Chile, whose agriculture officials continue to assess the potentially dire consequences on the import chain, which sends 40 percent of its total fruit exports to the United States, according to the most recent trade statistics.