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| Issue: 118 |
January 2020
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Limoneira.com
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Jan 2020-
The Trends Issue
January is all about new beginnings and new energy. It's also the perfect time to explore the many different cultural cross-currents that impact our world at Limoneira. The pace of change continues to increase. Things that seemed important even just a few years ago, didn't gain momentum, while things that started small have accelerated.
Convenience, health and sustainability continue to be top of mind with consumers. Let's take a look at what the prognosticators are predicting for 2020.
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4 Trends That Will Drive Produce Sales in 2020
Today's most successful produce departments do much more than sell berries, bananas and lettuce. They're selling a highly desirable lifestyle that celebrates health, flavor and freshness.
According to the latest IRI data, growth in the fresh perimeter is slowing. With $60 billion in sales, produce still represents the lion's share in fresh. However, while vegetables saw a modest lift in sales this past year, fruit was down. Can the produce industry reignite the accelerated growth that defined the early part of the decade? WGB asked four major players in the fresh produce: What do you see as the most important produce trend that will drive sales growth in 2020?
As consumers become savvier about health, wellness and eating for longevity, Limoneira in Santa Paula, Calif., sees the produce department playing a central role in showcasing the health and nutritional benefits
of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Through dietitian-created-recipes, in-store signage, geotargeted social media marketing, in-store videos with local influencers and point-of-sale materials, Limoneira is helping grocers to drive sales of fresh lemons.
"Fruits such as Limoneira lemons and citrus have a highly significant positive impact on health," says Alex Teague, chief operation officer at Limoneira. "The growth of the food as medicine movement continues to gain momentum.
Flavor Drives Loyalty
If Paul Mastronardi, president and CEO of Mastronardi Produce/Sunset, could describe 2020's top produce trend in one word, it would be "flavor."
"Outstanding flavor equals repeat sales, and consumers are seeking unique, high-flavor items more than ever," says Mastronardi. "Flavor reigns and I'm confident that consumers will continue to seek out the innovative, high-flavor offerings that have changed the game in fresh produce."
Transparency and Trust
As fresh produce continues its evolution from commodity products to brands with fans, Zest Labs, San Jose, Calif., sees trust and transparency taking center stage.
They're seeing an increasing number of brands and types of packaging in the produce department as many leading suppliers try to differentiate themselves from commodities based on freshness, convenience, nutrition and authenticity. Consumers also increasingly value transparency. They want to know and trust the supplier regarding where the produce came from and that it's been properly handled.
Freshness management and trace-ability solutions are key to brand building and traffic they say. Ultimately, this also benefits grocers who build customer loyalty by consistently offering fresher and more consistent produce.
Plant-Based Protein
For the Dole Food Co. Inc., based in Westlake Village, Calif., the rise of the plant-based healthy lifestyle trend is where sales gains lie in the year ahead.
They see a dramatic increase in sustainable eating trends-not just dieting for weight loss, but more focus on plant-based eating for health, be it vegetarian, flexitarian or vegan. Moving forward, produce companies like Dole can help respond with new plant-based products, recipes and initiatives.
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On December 15th, Luxe List along with a syndicate network of print and on-line publications promoted Limoneira's Nature's Pharmacy App in it's New Year-New You product roundup. The syndicate network is comprised of print and online outlets that are weekly and daily publications as well as magazines and other digital outlets.
Health and Convenience are ever more important and Nature's Pharmacy™ shows consumers that much of
what they need can easily, and inexpensively, be found in the produce aisle. The app helps consumers easily identify fruits and vegetables in grocery stores that can help solve healthcare issues they may be wrestling with.
We understand that people are busy and looking for solutions that are easy to incorporate into their busy lives, and the Nature's Pharmacy app does just that.
Limoneira cross-tabulated 57 health concerns including the need to increase good cholesterol, prevent cardiovascular disease or ease insomnia, as well as desired outcomes, including improving energy levels or reducing wrinkles, with 74 fruits and vegetables. All of these foods, which can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores, contain 12 essential vitamins and 11 essential minerals that address these concerns or help with desired outcomes. By selecting a concern or outcome, the app then generates foods in the produce aisle that can help consumers achieve their health goals.
The app is just one of several educational platforms to be launched as part of Limoneira's new Take a Healthy Stand™ campaign, which showcases the many ways that citrus and produce can play a role in helping to alleviate serious health issues as well as enhancing personal appearance and wellbeing. The foundation underpinning Limoneira's Take A Healthy Stand™ educational campaign is consumer-friendly messaging supported by research by the Institute of National Health and other objective organizations.
"The Produce Department is Nature's Pharmacy and Take a Healthy Stand are important components of the Food as Medicine movement taking hold nationwide," said Megan Roosevelt, a Limoneira nutritionist and founder of Healthy Grocery Girl®. "Food as Medicine maintains that fresh, healthy produce such as lemons can help avoid an expensive and perhaps less effective trip to the grocery department's supplement aisle."
The Produce Department is Nature's Pharmacy app can be found on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
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Limoneira Spokesperson, Megan Roosevelt, Highlights Flavorful and Nutritious Winter Recipes For All At Your Table
To start the new year right, Megan Roosevelt has curated 5 recipes that are sure to keep you feeling good from the inside out! January is a time to reset, and there is no better place to start than with yourself and what you use to fuel your bodies!
Keep your energy up with two recipes that are perfect for those much needed on-the-run pick-me-ups! Lemon Berry Yogurt Bites will keep your sweet tooth at bay and provide you with essential nutrients and Lemon Orange Energy Bites will give you the boost you need during your mid-day slump! If you're feeling a little sluggish after the holidays, this newsletter has 3 Slimming Citrus Smoothie recipes that will give your body the reset it needs. Since the colder months are still ahead, the recipe for the Meyer Lemon Wellness Shot is sure to ward off any sickness that may be coming your way. Finally, when you are ready to settle down for a delicious warm meal, look no further than this Lemon Turmeric Green Pea Rice that is sure to keep you feeling your best!
Don't forget to subscribe - videos with more wonderful recipes, tips, and tricks not detailed in this release will be added to the channel weekly. For more details on the tips below, watch this video for the recipe below
on
Limoneira's™ YouTube Channel.
Lemon Berry Yogurt Bites
Ingredients
1 Limoneira Classic Lemon
2 cups of unsweetened coconut yogurt
½ cup of fresh raspberries
½ cup of fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons of honey or agave
Click here for instructions!
Lemon Orange Energy Bites
Ingredients
3 tbsp fresh-squeezed Limoneira naval orange juice
2 cups gluten free rolled oats
3 tbsp fresh-squeezed Limoneira lemon juice
1 cup dried apricots
2 tbsp Chia seeds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Meyer Lemon Wellness Shot
Ingredients
3 Limoneira naval oranges
1 inch ginger root
3 Limoneira Meyer Lemons
1 inch Tumeric root
1/8 tsp black pepper
Limoneira has also partnered with additional global chefs and mixologists, nutritionists, and beauty lifestyle and green cleaning experts to share their knowledge with the customers of our grocery and foodservice partners around the world. Their biographies can be found on
Limoneira's website.
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4 Powerful Consumer Trends, Four Major Opportunities From Our Friends at Trend Watching
New challenges - and huge new opportunities are ahead and each January, we look to our friends at Trendwatching to share some of the exciting things their global network of researchers has uncovered.
Below are four key emerging consumer trends that they are sharing for 2020. Each one is a powerful opportunity to build new products, services, campaigns, brands and more that people will love in 2020 and beyond.
Green Pressure
In 2020, consumers move from eco-status to eco-shame.
The search for a more sustainable consumption is reaching a critical moment.
When sustainable alternatives are widespread, affordable and just as good or better than the legacy option, then eco-consumption becomes less about the status of opting in, and more about the shame of opting out. That's why in 2020, millions of consumers will seek out products, services and experiences that help them alleviate rising eco-shame.
It's hard to overstate the significance of this shift. Trend Watching has been tracking the search for a more sustainable consumption for over a decade. The common thread that runs through much of it is the evolution of eco-consumption as a status play.
Back in 2008, Tesla launched the Roadster, a USD 100,000 electric supercar. Eco-status. In 2016 Adidas partner with Parley for the Oceans to produce a limited-edition line of sneakers made from recycled ocean plastic; only 50 pairs are made. Eco-status Also in 2016, NYC's Momofuku Nishi becomes the first restaurant in the world to offer the Impossible Burger. Yet more eco-status
Fast-forward to 2019, and Tesla's Model 3 is a play for the mainstream driver, and now the third best-selling car in the UK. Adidas made 11 million pairs of ocean plastic sneakers in 2019. And Impossible Burger is available at over 7,000 Burger King outlets across the US.
A shift in the moral calculus for consumers is the key takeaway. Because when eco-alternatives are as available, affordable and effective as the legacy option, there's no reason not to choose them. Eco-consumption becomes less about the status of opting in, and more about the shame of opting out.
Shame therapy will be about helping consumers alleviate the eco-shame they feel when they engage with you.
Shame avoidance will be about helping consumers avoid eco-shame altogether.
Limoneira has had sust
ainability as a critical part of its mission before the term was even coined. Energy from the sun, water seeking drones , patented water technology, soil projects that capture carbon and spacious and clean homes that enable farmworker school children to study uninterrupted are part of the walk we talk and we believe our practices resonate with consumers.
Brand Avatars
The media landscape continues to fragment. Digital channels multiply. One opportunity? In 2020, consumers will pay deeper attention to brands that embody themselves via new virtual characters and avatars, allowing them to inhabit digital channels in richer, more immersive and more human ways.
Deep underlying forces are fueling the rise of Brand Avatars.
First, a multiplicity of digital channels - TikTok, Fortnite, Alexa, In-store touchscreens- means new expectations when it comes to the democratized conversation between brands and consumers.
Second, consumers are already becoming accustomed to meaningful relationships with AI-fueled entities. Relationships that go way beyond Alexa, order me some washing powder, and that encompass wellbeing, creativity, and even the human need for companionship.
Now Amazon is working on a wearable that will understand and respond to the emotions of the user. The rise of these Virtual Companions is priming consumers to expect branded virtual entities that connect to them on a deeper level.
Metamorphic Design
Consumers demand relevance as a service.
Two powerful consumer expectations are the converging-The desire for personalization - 'give me exactly what I want!' - has always been a part of the story of consumerism. Meanwhile, a decade of on-demand and 'everything as a service' has reshaped the meaning of convenience for millions around the world.
In 2020 consumers primed by constantly evolving digital services and smart physical spaces - and accustomed to the ultra-convenience of 'everything as a service' - will increasingly expect relevance as a service, too. That means services and experiences that constantly adapt around the changing needs of the user.
This is happening now because facial recognition, sensors and smart objects are turning the world into a landscape that shifts and changes around consumers. The result is ever-heightening expectations for responsive personalization.
New technologies - think affordable DNA testing, blood testing and more - are making innovations that shift and change around the changing human body possible for the first time.
Meanwhile, subscriptions, on-demand and sharing have become a part of daily life for millions: a recent survey of US consumers found more than half (54%) of online shoppers pay for at least one subscription box service The next step will be expectations for seamless convenience will intersect with heightened expectations for ever-shifting personalization.
Convenience and personalization are already on your radar. But in a metamorphic world, consumers will expect the merging of those two imperatives. Not just a business's offering as a service, but relevance as a service, too.
The Burnout
Smart brands rush to help those burned by the pressures of modern life.
Three glimpses of an urgent opportunity for you to help:
86% of British people say they have experienced anxiety due to work pressure in the last year. 87% have difficulties switching off from work, and 79% cite feelings of failure as a result (Microsoft, September 2019).
Two-thirds of working parents in Australia struggle to care for their health due to the tension between work and caring. One in four is thinking about quitting their job (National Working Families Report, October 2019).
71% of women and 66% of men in Singapore feel they work in an 'always-on' environment, with a constant need to access work emails, answer calls or check phones (Cigna, March 2019).
No wonder that in May 2019 the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an occupational health phenomenon.
The constant pressure to be on fire all the time - personally and professionally is causing many to burn through their mental and physical reserves. Amid a growing focus on wellbeing, individuals are confronting the impact of always-on lifestyles.
Taking action is the right thing to do, and a huge opportunity for innovation. An opportunity to serve consumers. And to change from the inside out. Get ready for a future in which the mental wellbeing of your employees is just as important as your supply chain and our environmental footprint.
At Limoneira we value the important work that ALL of our employees do. We spend a great deal of time, energy and resources to ensure that our employees benefit. Continuing education, best in class insurance benefits, generous 401K plans and subsidized, high-quality housing are just some of the reasons that multi-generations work at Limoneira and some of our employees have been us for 30+ years. We take pride in being recognized as a Family Friendly place to work for multiple years.
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Limoneira's Fresh Focus at ICR Investor Conference
As we start the year, one of the easiest ways to get healthy is by drinking lemon water. Limoneira's Fresh Focus ™ system is an easy way to utilize fresh lemons and water in our workplaces- where, let's face it, we spend the majority of our working day. Fresh Focus™ discusses tips on getting workers healthy, PH balance and the many benefits of drinking lemon water.
Limoneira lemons and lemon water will be on hand at the ICR Conference in Orlando, Florida from January 13-15th.
The ICR Conference is a unique platform where public and private company management teams, institutional investors, sell-side research analysts, investment bankers, private equity professionals and select media connect with one another with the goal of understanding consumer trends and public company prospects as the year begins.
The ICR Conference 2019 saw a record turnout across all attendee groups - over 2500+ total attendees and over 170 public and private companies.
About ICR
Established in 1998, ICR partners with companies to execute strategic communications and advisory programs that achieve business goals, build awareness and credibility, and enhance long-term enterprise value.
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Technomic Names Top 2020 Foodservice Trends
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Healthy and flavorful ingredients, sustainability and value are among the top trends set to shape the foodservice industry next year, according to a new report from Technomic.
Restaurant operators increasingly will look to new natural resources for menu innovation. This includes previously overlooked parts of familiar plants like beet greens, sweet potato leaves and avocado blossom, which can be positioned as waste-reducing and environmentally conscious.
Demand for interesting, healthy ingredients is fueled by a growing consumer appetite for plant-based offerings and adventurous flavors. Concerns about the environment also play a role.
"Sustainability is more than a menu initiative," said Aimee Harvey, managing editor at Technomic and author of the 2020 trends report. "It's emerging as part of the foodservice industry's new circular economy, evolving from a linear approach of create-use-recycle to create-use-reuse-sustain."
Technomic anticipates an even greater emphasis on reusable cups, portion control, strawless lids, smaller napkins, wood-fiber utensils, traceable sourcing and compostable packaging next year.
Creative menu offerings may help operators drive in-store traffic, which has lagged in recent years. As off-premise orders continue to flourish, Technomic said restaurants will turn to special value deals and loyalty-based rewards to drive in-store business.
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Important Trends Coming to Your Grocery Store in 2020
Grocery shoppers, according to food trend reports from industry experts, want the convenience of choosing from up to 60,000 items in one supermarket and enjoying a pleasant experience sorting through them. We want to eat healthier while indulging a sweet tooth occasionally, and market researchers pay close attention to these and other consumer desires.
Whole Foods is always striving to better understand their customers' passions when it comes to food. Millennials, especially, are more likely to spend more money on high-quality food, the company's research says.
Convenience Foods
Supermarkets are upping their food-on-the-run game. Expect much more than ready-made sandwiches and rotisserie chicken. We'll see healthier and more diverse to-go meals, such as eggplant Parmesan and single-serve refrigerated snacks, like hard-boiled eggs with savory toppings, pickled vegetables and drinkable soups.
Two-person meal kits, which take the shop and chop out of meal prep, sell in supermarkets for $12 to $15. Look for selections such as curried beef, Italian sausage soup, Korean tacos or Caprese chicken over a warm spinach salad.
Albertsons (including Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market and Haggen) is developing its Plated label into an in-store "culinary" brand that emphasizes lifestyle, convenience and cooking experience, aimed at loyal, high-value customers, a company official says.
Limoneira customer HelloFresh will introduce Limoneira's popular pink lemons into their meal kits in 2020, along with delicious recipes.
Plant-Based Foods
Proteins from plants are a culinary trend and grocers are taking notice.
Kroger (which you might also know as City Market, Dillons, Foods Co, Fred Meyer, Fry's, Harris Teeter's, King Soopers, QFC and Ralphs, among others) is rolling out 58 new plant-based items under its Simple Truth brand. Megan Roosevelt, Limoneira's Take a Healthy Stand™spokesperson is a plant-based nutritionist and offers shoppers great and delicious plant-based recipes featuring Limoneira citrus.
Meat-Vegetable Blends
People who eat mostly vegetables yet enjoy some beef and fish may be intrigued by products blending ground meat with mushrooms and other vegetables, lowering fat, cholesterol and even prices. The Lika Plus Burger uses 75% ground beef with 25% Lika Plus (wheat, mushroom, barley yeast and water).
At home, you might make your own blended meatballs, with beef, quinoa and vegetables. Mushrooms, whose chewing texture is similar to meat, are even popping up in jerky.
Food Stories
Consumers like learning "the story" behind foods, to discern if products they buy align with their values. Food makers think you'll trust a brand if you learn about its benefits and production. Limoneira has a great story to tell...history, sustainability, integrity and community support that resonates with our grocery and foodservice partners.
Regenerative Agriculture
We want our food to support farming and grazing practices that restore degraded soil, improve biodiversity and increase carbon capture for long-lasting environmental benefits. Limoneira's new healthy soils project restores important nutrients to soil and captures carbon too!
Mashups
Products that experiment by crossing cultures offer consumers a low-key adventure and a chance to sample new flavors.
This trend embraces hybrid flavors, category fusions and mixed taste profiles - doughnut ice cream cones and cold brew lattes, for a couple of examples.
New Flours
Home bakers are intrigued by new "super" flours delivering protein and fiber, such as teff flour (used in Ethiopian injera, a flatbread) or flours from fruits, seeds and vegetables, such as banana, coconut and cauliflower.
The trend is found in ready-made products, too - Late July brand Tortilla Chips are made with tigernut (a gluten-free root vegetable) flour, for instance.
Indulgences
Indulgent sweets give consumers a momentary escape from our always-on, busy lifestyles. Treats can help elevate your mood or offer a moment of relaxation. Megan Roosevelt, aka the Healthy Grocery Girl, provides Limoneira's customers with balanced indulgence.
Zero-Waste Cooking
The environmental impact of food (or "foodprints") will sway more purchases as consumers become aware that 570,000 tons of fresh, useable meat and poultry products are thrown away every year globally, says marketing agency THP. Discarded products can be used in sustainable and creative ways. Limoneira Misfits™ address the food waste movement. These citrus commodities are cosmetically challenged but have plenty of juice and taste great.
Kroger says it is trying to help you reduce home food waste by simplifying date labels on its house brands of dairy, deli, bakery, and fresh and frozen products. "Use By" indicates the deadline for when a food is no longer safe to eat; "Best If Used By" indicates the deadline for guaranteed freshness but does not affect the product's safety, the company says.
Global Tastes
Ethnic foods from around the world are gaining favor, particularly with younger folks who enjoy street foods, says marketing specialist THP. Grocers are noticing and expanding their offerings in Southeast Asian flavors.
Keep an eye out for mainstreaming of Vietnamese specialties such as bún bò huế, a rice vermicelli and beef soup, or cha ca, fish marinated with turmeric, fried with heaps of dill and spring onion and served over rice noodles with peanuts and a dipping sauce.
Likewise, Whole Foods says West African flavors are trending. The cuisine uses tomatoes, onions and chili peppers, often with peanuts, ginger and lemongrass. Stores may carry superfoods such as moringa and tamarind, and grains such as sorghum, fonio, teff and millet.
Limoneira's global mixologist and culinary opinion leaders, from Hong Kong, London, Buenos Aires, and Capetown and beyond share tantalizing flavor combinations with Limoneira citrus.
Speedier Shopping
Your time is precious, grocers know. Albertsons, for one example, is adding self-checkout stands and expanding its grocery pick up and delivery services, allowing customers to order and pay online and drive up so employees can load groceries into a customer's car.
Limoneira's Nature's Pharmacy app- helps get shoppers healthy and does it quickly and conveniently. A shopper logs onto their phone and checks the produce items/and associated vitamins and minerals to help alleviate health issues and or optimize outcomes.
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SEO Steps Up To The Plate In 2020
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In 2020, website optimization will become ever more important at Limoneira. Customized, compelling and actionable content is important at Limoneria. We have a great story to tell and healthy sustainably produced citrus to feed a hungry world. Each month, editorial content changes to reflect consumer patterns, holidays and practices. Recipes, tips, videos, promotions and customer highlights are part of the mix and getting them to time-pressed and communication overloaded consumers is part of the competitive framework.
In 2020, we will spend increasing amounts of time and strategic thought on how to solve problems for busy consumers.
BrightEdge is our partner in this mission and will help us transforms online content into tangible business results, like traffic, engagement, and revenue. BrightEdge's SEO platform is powered by a sophisticated AI and machine learning engine. Because it crawls the web and collects first-party data, it is the only enterprise SEO company capable of web-wide, real-time measurement of digital content engagement across all digital channels, including search, social, and mobile.
BrightEdge is venture-backed by some of the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. The company employs more than 350 people, operating in offices in Foster City, Seattle, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, London, Sydney, and Tokyo.
We're excited about the partnership!
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Ventura County Coastal Associations Realtors
VCCAR is a professional trade association of nearly 2,000 licensed real estate agents in western Ventura County and each year the association holds a gala installation event to recognize outgoing officers and directors and to formally install the next year's team.
The theme for the January 2020 installation is We R in Motion, and to illustrate the theme outgoing President Jorge DeLeón and incomi
ng President Tim Comstock thought it would be fun to be photographed in a vintage motorcycle and sidecar. But where to do the shoot?
Limoneira was quickly identified as a great loc
ation and VCCAR reached out to Marketing Coordinator Camille Yanez, who found the perfect spot for a fun afternoon photoshoot. VCCAR said the photoshoot went off without a hitch!
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Limoneira's Winner Block
This month our lucky winner is Betty Strom from Columbus Ohio. As our monthly winner, Betty has won a Limoneira Orchard Fresh or Lifestyles Gift.
Congratulations Betty!
For your chance to win, make sure you're on our mailing list to be entered into our monthly drawing. To join
click here
or visit our website at
www.Limoneira.com.
Be sure to check out our other contests and drawings for additional changes to win prizes.
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