Colorado recap: food safety, retail trends and data top grower concerns

GRAND JUNCTION, CO – I don’t know if you know this, but I’m big in Colorado.

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After two consecutive years speaking at the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association conference in Denver, the group sponsored me to visit with the Western Colorado Horticultural Society at their annual conference in mid-January. I had a chance to talk to growers about their greatest concerns and share some of my Top Retail Trends to Watch, which are published in our 2019 Know Your Commodity Guide.

Growers told me food safety was one of their top concerns. With ever more pressure coming from the buyer community – particularly chain retail – for more measures like stickering fruit and traceability, growers are concerned that already thin margins will dig slip even further.

Temperature is a big deal out here in Colorado, as well, and growers heard from speakers about new technologies to track temperatures and share data, and varieties that are hardier for the climate.

In my talk, I focused on retail trends shaping the way growers interact with the market, including convenience, snacking, channel choice, organic and local, as well as the future of Honeycrisp as the go-to apple for consumers.

Stay tuned for more on that, as I analyze the future of Honeycrisp in coverage over the next few weeks.

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