National Retail Report - April 11

From the USDA's National Retail Report of April11: (See spreadsheet at bottom of blog for more context)

Ads Celebrate Spring and Passover
Warmer weather has many retailers featuring ads related to the backyard barbeque, such as meat for grilling and soft drinks. There was also a wide variety of items associated with the upcoming Passover holiday that were advertised prominently this week. Retailers continued to feature an assortment of organic items this week. In addition to those in this report, ads for organic mangoes, avocadoes, cauliflower, eggplant, romaine hearts, and zucchini were noted.
There was almost an equal amount of fruit and vegetable ads this week, with fruit ads appearing slightly more. Overall, fresh produce ad activity increased over 8 percent compared to last week. Fruits were featured 19 percent more often, while vegetables were featured 5 percent less often than last week. The most notable change was a nearly three-fold
increase in ads for Red Delicious apples. The top 5 items this week were: strawberries, grapes, asparagus, mangoes, and cantaloupe. In addition, several retailers used the change in season to sell cleaning products by promoting a “Spring Cleaning” theme.

Fruits as Percentage of Total Fruit Ads April 11, 2008
Watermelon, seedless 1%
Watermelon, mini 4%
Strawberries, organic 5%
Strawberries 15%
Plums 1%
Pineapple 4%
Peaches 1%
Pears, bartlett 9%
Oranges, navel 3%
Nectarines, yellow flesh 1%
Mangoes 10%
Bananas 0%
Apples, red delicious 8%
Avocadoes, hass 8%
Blueberries 1%
Cantaloupe 10%
Clementines 0%
Grapes, green/red 15%
Limes 0%
Honeydew 2%
Lemons 1%
Grapefruit, red 3%


Vegetables as Percentage of Total Vegetable Ads April 11, 2008
Sweet Potatoes 1%
Tomatoes 3%
Tomatoes, organic 0%
Tomatoes on the vine 9%
Tomatoes, grape 5%
Tomatoes, grape organic 4%
Lettuce, iceberg 2%
Cucumbers 7%
Corn 6%
Celery 3%
Carrots, baby organic 3%
Carrots, baby 7%
Cabbage 3%
Broccoli, organic 1%
Beans, round green 3%
Broccoli 4%
Lettuce, romaine 3%
Squash, zucchini 8%
Peppers, bell red 4%
Potatoes, russet 4%
Peppers, bell green 3%
Onions, sweet 7%
Onions, yellow 4%
Mushrooms, white 4%
Asparagus 12%