YUMA, AZ - With the cool fall season bringing a host of seasonal and year-round fruits and veggie items to the table, I have been watching the produce department warm with autumn colors and Thanksgiving delights. One of those delicious staples for this time of year: dates. 

Erin Hanagan-Muths, fellow date-lover and Director of Marketing for Bard Valley Date Growers, joins me to discuss the growing category and what makes the Natural Delights brand a holiday favorite, and a growing year-round one as well. 

“In addition to the continued promotion of whole, pitted, and Organic Medjool dates, the Natural Delights brand will be promoting our Pecan Pumpkin Pie Spiced Date Rolls this holiday season,” Erin shares with me. “This offering is unique in the category and allows produce managers to participate in the wave of 'pumpkin' flavored items that takes over the rest of retail during the holiday season. Our limited edition holiday trays are also a hot item this season.” 

Natural Delight’s Pecan Pumpkin Pie Spiced Date Rolls shipment volumes were up 43 percent and 89 percent respectively for the first two months of Fall from September and October, she adds. The item is on track to finish this year at over 30 percent growth in total volume for this SKU, according to the company. 

“Natural Delights is one of the top brands of Medjool dates and accounts for 85 percent of the date category share of dollars and volume,” she adds. “The Natural Delights Medjool date brand has excelled in terms of growing consumer demand and driving repeat purchases for the category.” 

During the 2017 holiday period, the Natural Delights brand will also be executing its final national consumer promotion for the 2016 calendar year, to help boost consumption and sales. 

“Our highly-anticipated annual holiday recipe promotion, Naughty and Nice, celebrates the many ways Natural Delights can make holiday gatherings special,” Erin says. “Through national print vehicles like Cooking Light, Shape, and Bon Appetit, as well as targeted programmatic digital banner and social media advertising, the campaign connects with consumers who are interested in healthy snacking, fitness, home cooking, and holiday entertaining.”

Retailers can take part in the promotion by incorporating self-display shippers with promotional tie-in merchandising elements provided by Natural Delights. The Naughty and Nice promotion is the fourth in a year-long series of demand-generating activities that have delivered over 150 million impressions to health-minded consumers through a national consumer advertising campaign that spans print, digital, mobile, and social media channels.

Erin shares some stats that help reinforce the growth within the category: 

• Medjool dates Volume% change has increased 35.7% in the last year. 
• Medjool dates account for 71.6% dollar share of the entire date category
• Dates are a $41,618,336 category

So, how is the date category beginning to generate more demand throughout the year? Erin shares that while they have long been a secret weapon of elite athletes looking for sustained energy and muscle recovery, the average consumer didn’t view the fruit as an energy snack. Until now. 

“Thanks to the research, educational, and promotional efforts driven by the Natural Delights brand, consumers everywhere are awakening to the amazing nutritional qualities, versatility, and flavor composition of the Medjool date,” she says. “The marketing efforts of the Natural Delight’s brands comes at a time when the category is experiencing dramatic shifts in the way we eat and what consumers value out of their food.”

Health-minded consumers and Millennial shoppers are racing towards healthy, on-the-go snacking options that help them sustain their energy levels, have minimal ingredients, are GMO-free, and contain no artificial flavors or colors. With the consumer basket changing and demographics shifting across North America, I’m looking forward to more date products popping-up in my local produce departments. 

Bard Valley Date Growers