Before getting onstage at the Vegetable Innovation Lab at Cibus Tec in Italy, Mark Murai (in the photo) visited the frozen section of an Italian supermarket. "In Italy, you have many types of frozen vegetables, but only one type of frozen fruit, displayed near the ice-creams."
Murai is the Vice-President of Sunrise Growers, a US company, part of SunOpta Company specialising in frozen organic produce. It has 5,000 suppliers, 26 facilities and 3,300 clients worldwide.
"In the US, fruit is the leading frozen product, though its penetration rate is still low. However it is 32.7% in 2016, definitely higher than the 26.8% of 2015."
"In the States there is more and more frozen fruit. The most popular are strawberries, followed by blueberries and berry mixes. Vegetable and fruit mixes and super-food smoothies are also very popular, so much so that lately they have grown by 270%."
The frozen food market has grown a lot in the US over the last few years, especially for organic produce. The organic section was worth $32 billion in 2013, $36 billion in 2014 (+11%) and $40 billion in 2015. "We expect it to grow by 5-7% each year until 2025, while sales of organic frozen fruit have grown by 37.1% this year alone."
