To address the focus of IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2023 in Anaheim, California in late October, Rabobank developed a state of the global fresh produce industry report. 

The report highlights the industry’s global challenges such as weather extremes, and geopolitical tensions, as well as how “the ever-decreasing and more expensive workforce is affecting players along the fresh produce supply chain.”

Weather concerns

Extreme weather around the globe was one of the main topics of discussion during the event as it affects a wide range of products. 

The report indicates that some of the many fruits impacted by recent weather disruptions are blueberries, table grapes, and stone fruit. 

Blueberries are one of the most affected products, especially in Peru, where after years of growth, shipments declined significantly in 2023-24 due to a warm winter that negatively impacted yields. 

“While this is one of the many outcomes of El Niño, in the longer run, the industry expects continuing growth in blueberry exports,” notes the report. 

Berry quality expectations

As the speed of demand growth in the main markets – the U.S. and the E.U. –slowed in recent years, quality has become more important. 

Jumbo-size berries are expected to quickly gain market relevance, not only because of consumer preferences but also due to efficiency gains and reduced production and harvesting costs. 

For strawberries, quality was also a feature at the show. Most striking were various exhibits of branded greenhouse-grown strawberries. In contrast to Europe, greenhouse-grown strawberries are a fairly new, but fast-growing phenomenon in the U.S.

Automation gaining steam

In the long term, it does seem that leafy green production and processing will also be more automated, despite the current challenges for high-tech green production. Like many other fruit and vegetable industries, the costs and availability of labor, as well as more limited water availability and more stringent sustainability requirements are challenging. At the same time, consumers demand an ever-higher quality. 

According to the report, automation can solve some of these issues, as seen in many interesting demonstrations at IFPA 2023. 

Automation solutions ranged from robotic harvesters for strawberries and tomatoes, to extremely advanced sorting equipment for fruits, to technologies for assisting pollination in avocado, blueberry, and almond production. 

According to some industry sources, the payback period for some robotic packaging or sorting equipment is currently less than one year. Also presented were various solutions to reduce food waste, including fruit coatings to increase shelf life and an in-retail scanner to determine the ripeness of avocados, preventing consumers from squeezing the fruit until it is unsellable.

Nuts at your convenience

With California at the center of global almond and pistachio production, it was no surprise that tree nuts were omnipresent at the produce show hosted there. 

As demand is no longer outpacing supply, suppliers are putting more effort into marketing almonds, pistachios, and walnuts, for example by adding all kinds of flavors and offering various pack sizes. 

Show visitors were bombarded with flavored pistachios, from very sweet to extremely spicy. We also saw lots of unshelled pistachios, as the convenience trend seems unstoppable, even in a year with strong economic headwinds.

Exotic species are mushrooming

In the mushroom space, suppliers are also seeking differentiation. Mushroom suppliers showed broad assortments of conventional and organic exotic mushrooms at the show. Different sizes, colors, and packages of oyster mushrooms, shiitake, enoki-take, and maitake were exposed. According to the USDA, the sales value of commercially grown specialty mushrooms rose 3% in 2022-23 over the previous year.