National Retail Report - March 13

From the USDA's National Retail Report on March 13:


Ads for St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) were the front page focus this week with many stores
featuring corned beef brisket, green cabbage, carrots and red potatoes. Ads also featured potted shamrocks and other greenery and bakery items decorated especially for the holiday. Some smaller retailers regionally kept their focus on the Lenten period with continued offersings of seafood and accompaniments. Easter which is April 12th this year is 19 days later that last year (March 23, 2008) so Easter ads which were prevalent this time last year are hardly seen yet. Not surprisingly, cabbage was the featured produce item this week. The number of stores with cabbage on ad jumped from 2,000 to over 12,000 stores this week. Overall produce ads were at 114,069 stores, up 8 percent from the previous week. Vegetables ads were up 27 percent while fruit ads fell 6 percent compared to the previous week.


Fruits as Percentage of Total Fruit Ads March 13, 2009
Apples, red delicious 7%
Avocados, hass 6%
Cantaloupe 10%
Grapes, green/red 16%
Nectarines 6%
Peaches 6%
Plums 7%
Strawberries 13%


Vegetables as Percentage of Total Vegetable Ads March 13, 2009
Asparagus 11%
Cabbage 23%
Carrots, baby 7%
Onions, yellow 6%
Onions, sweet 5%
Tomatoes on the vine 6%


Here is the summary graph from National Retail Report from March 14, 2008:

St. Patrick’s Day was the dominant theme in ads this week, as most stores featured corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes on the front page of their ads. In addition, retailers continue to promote Easter with various specialty items, such as candy, and potted plants and flowers. Seafood continues to be featured for the final days of the Lenten season. Overall, fruits continue to be more heavily featured than vegetables, with the exception of cabbage. The large number of grape, cantaloupe and stone fruit ads can be attributed to heavy volumes of these items being imported from South America and the Caribbean Basin. The amount of cabbage ads featured this week was significantly higher than all the other vegetables, with baby carrots coming in a distant second place followed by asparagus. In addition to cabbage reported, there were an abundance of ads of organically grown cabbage. Springtime seasonal items, other than produce, such as daffodils, tulips, and other flowers continue to be featured by retailers.

Fruits as Percentage of Total Fruit Ads March 14, 2008
Nectarines, yellow flesh 8%
Peaches 9%
Pineapple 6%
Cantaloupe 9%
Avocadoes, hass 8%
Apples, red delicious 5%
Strawberries 10%
Plums 7%
Grapes, green/red 18%


Vegetables as Percentage of Total Vegetable Ads March 14, 2008
Onions, yellow 5%
Tomatoes on the vine 6%
Tomatoes, grape 5%
Cabbage 22%
Broccoli 5%