Crunching carrots

Twenty-one pages on carrots and it reads like a dream. The USDA's Economic Research Service has published a report called "Factors Affecting Carrot Consumption in the United States." Here is the main link to the report.

Here are some highlights:

Despite the popularity and convenience of fresh-cut products, disappearance of carrots declined during the first 6 years of the new millennium. While this drop may have partly reflected reduced demand for whole carrots, it is more likely that the maturation of the fresh-cut industry fostered increased production and processing efficiency, thus reducing waste and allowing lower raw carrot production.

During 2000-05, average disappearance of carrots for the fresh market (down 15 percent) and for processing (down 20 percent) have each declined from the 1990-99 average. Despite this drop, per capita use of all carrots this decade remains 20 percent above the average of the 1980s.

The analysis indicates that per capita carrot consumption is greatest in the East and Central regions of the country. About 80 percent of fresh-market carrots are purchased at retail and consumed at home, with the majority consisting of fresh-cut (including baby) carrots. Per capita use of fresh carrots is strongest among Asians, with per capita use of both fresh and freezing carrots greatest among upper income households.

Within the $1.3-billion fresh-cut vegetable category (excludes pre-packaged salads), carrots account for the largest share (about half) of supermarket sales, followed distantly by potatoes, celery, and others

Adoption of fresh-cut was not a problem for long-time carrot consumers, as households headed by someone over age 65 exceeded national average fresh-cut consumption by 29 percent.

Organic carrots are continuing to make inroads into U.S. carrot markets. According to the 2003 Homescan panel data, organic carrots accounted for about 3 percent of the total at-home carrot market.


Flashback to Feb. 7, 1992. From The Packer's library, I pulled this piece I wrote about the "better mousetrap" of baby carrots.

All this interest in what used to be the culls from regular fresh carrot packing operations. Instead of shipping small carrots to the freezer or cattle feeders, grower-shippers now grow special fields for production of baby peeled carrots.
``The acceptance has been tremendous and we are at a prorate situation everyday,'' said Rich Speidell with Cal World Produce Sales, a division of Mike Yurosek & Son Inc., Lamont, Calif. Though the baby peeled carrot has been offered by Cal World for five years, only recently has the item begun to show its potential.
The 12-ounce, 1-pound and 2-pound cello bags are popular, and some 5-pound bags are moving through the club stores. Bulk packs are being offered to foodservice.
``We projected growth between 5 and 35 percent (in the past year); it's probably grown 70 percent,'' Speidell said. Over the next season, growth of 25 percent to 30 percent is expected.


TK: While we wait for sliced apples to become the next baby peeled carrots, a tribute to ingenuity of Mike Yurosek in 1986 and the hard work of Grimmway, Bolthouse and others that have made the fresh cut carrot category half a billion dollar plus strong and growing.