Fresh Thinking Trends

Our Category & Insights team have being monitoring the Prepared Fruit market closely throughout the Covid-19 impact and lockdown to understand the latest trends and consumers attitudes and behaviours.

Working from home

With working from home becoming the ‘new norm’ the traditional on-the-go convenience mission has taken a back-seat for the time being and larger pack formats such as fruit platters (+45% sales growth in the latest 12Wks vs last year: IRI Data) have become increasingly popular to satisfy the in-home healthy snacking need state; whether that be multi-use throughout the week or for family sharing occasions.

Online

The Online channel is booming across the Total Grocery market (+91% sales growth in the latest 4Wks vs last year: Kantar Data) and it is no different for Prepared Fruit. Retailers have reacted quickly to increase distribution capacity and initiate quicker and more innovative home delivery schemes. Importantly consumers of all age groups are engaging with the channel and retailers predict this will be a permanent shift in purchasing behaviour.

Health

Health has become an increasingly important factor driving consumers path to purchase on lots of food and drink categories including prepared fruit (68% of consumers state health benefits are an important factor in purchasing prepared fruits: PrepWorld Hive Survey June 2020). Portion Control and Vitamins & Nutrient Boost stand out as key motivations leading to sales growth for Citrus Fruits in both Prepared and Whole-head Fruit markets as consumers look to increase their Vitamin C and D intake as a means to boost their immune system.