The Future of

Tomatoes

Tomato suppliers are experimenting with new vines and varietals that lead with bold, sweet and juicy flavors. The diversity in flavor profiles allows for more consumers to taste test within the category. Finding the right level of sweet flavor or crisp texture makes meal prep easier for home cooks to slice and dice the ideal types of tomatoes to complement spicy salsas, bold pasta sauces, crisp salads and savory grill fare from kabobs to burgers.

“NatureSweet is known for the best snacking tomatoes in the world, and it starts with our dedication to flavor,” said Director of Marketing Amit Patel. “With flavor at the forefront, we have recently launched NatureSweet Adora, which is a premium line of heirloom tomatoes that we found out of Spain and partnered with a great seed company to grow for a strong retail partner. We’re also always looking to revamp our existing items with new and flavorful combinations. Our Constellation medley has continued to expand into seasonal packs which have fun themes, labels, promotions, and package designs, but also differing combinations of tomatoes. Along with these great seasonal packs we have relevant promotions that add fun digital and instore consumer engagement like our Snack Like a Champ promotion, which was a great success and drove sales and engagement during the football season.” most recent partnership with Fanatics as part of our Snack Like a Champ promotion or our Instant Pop partnership during the holiday season. Packaging continues to be an initiative that we two tomato categories is earmarked for that acreage.”

Tomato varieties that elevate both the category and snack time, and smart packaging that fits into busy, constantly on-the-move daily routines are some of the consumer preferences fueling category growth.

“The IFPA recently performed a case study on our company regarding our efforts around sustainability which was released in January. This study highlights many of the initiatives we have put into action for the last several years to transform the agricultural industry. It’s not just a phrase that we say 'transforming the lives of agricultural workers in North America,' but we’ve actually put plans into action and this case study is proof of the work that we’re doing in communities and within the industry to transform lives.” — Amit Patel, NatureSweet have dedicated cross functional teams working on to help drive sustainability. We already have our retail 10 ounce packs in 100 percent recycled material so that we’re not adding more plastics to landfills. We’re also continuing to look for more sustainable packaging options that still allow us to serve the best quality product to our consumers and don’t limit shelf life and quality. We launched To Go within the last year and that has a really great story for packaging and convenience. We developed a fully washed and ready-to-eat line that allows consumers to just pop open our package and snack away. This pack is also perfectly breathable and allows for refrigeration.”

Strengthening partnerships and building relationships remains a priority for the company as they adapt to stay ahead of any challenges they may face. “We continue to develop partnerships across our supply chain from packaging development, seed companies, material suppliers, and customers,” Patel continued. “Many of our customer partnerships have been extremely successful and have resulted in finding what works best for their shoppers and launching it into market. We also have many brand partnerships such as our

As for new product development, Red Sun Farms is launching a new premium mini sweet pepper called Tatayoyo. “Red Sun Farms continuously strives for innovation, efficiencies and growth,” said Director of Marketing and Packaging Leona Neill. “This new pepper is packed with flavor intensity, sweetness, and is certainly one of the most fragment peppers that you have ever cut into. Our commitment to growth continues with Red Sun Farms recently acquiring additional property for future expansion. Increased production capacity of tomato varietals was the largest driver for the acquisition. A little too early to lay out our plans in detail but growth in at least

“We have noticed that there is continuous growth in packaged and premium items,” Patel said. “This can be seen by the commanding share that snacking tomatoes has of the total tomato category and the strong growth in the Cherry-onthe-Vine segment. NatureSweet is capitalizing on this with our newest improvement to the NatureSweet D’Vines line, with a better-than-ever new Cherry-on-theVine variety. We will also continue to expand and grow this segment with best-tasting new variety extensions. Also, seasonally relevant items driven by Constellation Seasonal Medley have driven growth in the medley category and are now an annual tradition. The biggest opportunity area for the category is on-the-go snacking. With most consumers eating tomatoes at home or at restaurants, the market for lunches and on-the-go snacks is large. This will drive incremental growth and thus could drive strong growth in snacking tomatoes and the total tomato category. NatureSweet is developing this opportunity with the launch of Cherubs and Constellation to Go snack packs.”

Windset Farms foresees trends that will influence the course of the category. “We expect to see an increasing trend towards snacking varieties that may be different than the tomatoes people are familiar with,” VP of Sales Jeff Madu previously said. “Consumers' palates are evolving. We’re seeing the industry move towards exploratory tomato varieties. Trialing and growing new varieties are not new to Windset, however, bringing these varieties to market as standalone products is something we didn’t see the demand for 10 years ago.”