Organic Sales #1 at 4Earth Farms

For the first time in the 15 year history of its organic program, 4Earth Farms’ sales in the sector have surpassed those on the conventional produce side of the ledger.

“We haven’t seen it slow down on the organic side,” said Mark Munger, vice president of sales and marketing for the Los Angeles-based company. “We like the mix (between conventional and organic) that we are at, but organics continue to grow as we are seeing more and more retailers make a full commitment to their organic programs.”

Mark Mungr, 4Earth Farms

4Earth Farms began its organic program deliberately a decade and a half ago by introducing organic Brussels sprouts, which was one of the mainstays on the conventional side. In fact, the growth in organics has mirrored the company’s conventional efforts. “We have about 20 organic items,” Munger said. “We are very strong in the dry vegetables such as peppers, cukes, zucchini, the hard squashes, grape tomatoes. One item that has surprised us recently is the popularity of our organic mini sweet bell peppers.” He also mentioned Brussel sprouts, green beans and sugar snap peas as important items on the organic sales sheet.

The company has also made inroads in the foodservice sector, but Munger said the retail space continues to drive gains in organics. Restaurants are challenged when it comes to labeling a particular dish as organic as some ingredients might not be available as organic every day. As such, restaurants tend to avoid that label and lose the incentive to buy organic ingredients if they can’t tout it.

4Earth Farm’s business model for all of its vegetables has been to focus on its core commodities rather than constantly  introducing new items to the mix. The firm is a dry vegetable specialist with several differing growing regions in California and Mexico. In fact, the company was preparing to transition production of most of its crops to Mexico — both Baja and Sinaloa — in November. Munger said rain from three different hurricanes this fall created a challenging start to the Mexican winter deal, but he anticipates supplies of most items, both organic and conventional, will be adequate as the winter season wears on.

That season will also bring the further introduction of the company’s new packaging, which is currently in a soft roll-out on the organic items. The new packaging will be available for all items and the transition will occur as packaging inventory on hand runs out.

Munger said the new packaging came about as the company did a “shelf-edge evaluation” by talking to customers and consumers. “What we discovered is that most people think produce is ‘over packaged’ and by that they mean the packaging has too many graphics. That seems to be a trend and we are going in the opposite direction.”

Organic Green Beans, 4Earth Farms

The new packaging creates a cleaner look with a clear window to the produce. “Produce sells itself,” Munger said. “You don’t need a lot of graphics.”

He said that is especially true with organic produce bur there is another factor that enters the equation. “Organic customers want less packaging but there has to be accountability at check-out so that it get rung up properly. That’s the dichotomy were playing in.”

Munger said 4Earth Farms does have retail customers that mostly feature organic produce and for those stores, the firm’s vegetables are often sold in bulk. “We love that, but if it’s a conventional supermarket, you need the packaging.”

For all of its organic packaging, 4Earth includes a scannable barcode either as the UPC or the PLU. This helps further reduce errors at checkout. Munger said the new packaging features “muted, understated graphics. Everyone wants their brand to be prominent but that isn’t what the consumer wants. We’re going back to basics with the focus on the product.”