Ippolito International's Sarah Clarke Discusses Strong Cauliflower Season and Demand
SALINAS, CA - Cauliflower is proudly standing in the spotlight as consumer trends favor the cruciferous veg for its highly adaptable flavor and ability to provide a healthy substitute for classic recipe ingredients. As shoppers continue to come calling for the vegetable, Ippolito International’s Sarah Clarke, Cauliflower Commodity Manager, explains that the grower is standing by with great quality and excellent supplies to meet demand.
“We have been growing in the Yuma, Arizona, region for a full month, and cauliflower quality has been fantastic. Ideal really,” Sarah tells me. “So far, we have seen brilliant white coloring, sizing true to what it should be, with a good balance of 9 ct, 12 ct, and 16 ct options. Overall, heads are compact and very uniform as well.”
With such fantastic quality, Sarah expects that Ippolito’s cauliflower won’t stay stocked in the produce aisle for long, as December continues to show moderate to strong demand coming off of the Thanksgiving holiday. Getting into the rest of the winter holiday season, Ippolito has the supplies necessary to support the needs of shoppers as well as offer promotions to boost buy-side sales—especially as consumers start to load up on better-for-you options to kickstart their New Year’s resolutions.
Currently, Ippolito’s overall volume for the Yuma season is very similar to what it was last year, with weather patterns pushing the season slightly ahead of schedule.
“Recently, Yuma experienced very warm weather, ranging from seven to 10 degrees higher than normal compared to years past,” Sarah says. “This brought quite a bit of product forward, leading us to trend seven to 10 days ahead of schedule. We’ve had above-budgeted volumes available to us over the last two weeks, and as a result, we will start to see a decrease in volume as we move into the end of December and beginning of January.”
In terms of category prices, cauliflower has been relatively steady with little fluctuation, Sarah imparts. To further assist its customers, Ippolito is offering aggressive promotional pricing for the veg, which in turn will help retailers boost ROI.
So, as the ground outside turns white with snow in the Northern Hemisphere this winter, turn your produce aisles white with Ippolito’s cauliflower and watch the green coming rolling in.
