Trends in Marketing Fruits and Vegetables

Producers, distributors, and processors of fruits and vegetables have adjusted to many production and marketing changes in the last 20 years. These changes include greater specialization in production, improved farming practices, higher volume of the products processed, slow growth in the volume marketed fresh, the rise of supermarkets, increased buying at shipping points by retailers, and the development of new processed products. Reasons for change in the fruit and vegetable industry include such broad social and economic forces as population growth, rising levels of living, increased urbanization, and changes in consumers' tastes. Specific factors accounting for changes included such developments as new and improved varieties of crops, improved technology in production and processing, more rapid and efficient communication facilities, and faster and more dependable transportation. This article attempts to summarize some of the changes of the last 2 decades and discusses some likely future changes.