Since The Nunes Co. introduced its innovative “BroccoLeaf” product to the marketplace, it has achieved great critical success as well as generating tremendous interest from the buyer community.

Doug Classen, sales manager for the Salinas, CA-based company and its Foxy brand of produce, said the specialty store organic buyers were the early adopters of Foxy Organic BroccoLeaf, but the mainline conventional retailers have also expressed a lot of interest.

In addition, some of the upscale food and style publications — including Prevention magazine, InStyle, Fine Cooking, and Good Housekeeping — and many consumer publications have sung the praises of the new leafy vegetable.

For example, Prevention magazine wrote: “Get your blenders, salad bowls, and skillets ready — there’s a new leafy green in town, and it’s seriously tasty.”

“We think the next ‘It veggie’ is the BroccoLeaf from Foxy Organics,” said a writer from Good Housekeeping.

“It’s less like broccoli and more like kale 2.0, but broccoli leaves are more tender than kale and are fortunately lacking the bitter bite you often get from kale,” said Shape magazine.

Classen tells buyers that BroccoLeaf is a great substitute for kale. “It can be used for juice, in salads or it can be grilled,” he said.

“To say that we are pleased with the progress we’ve made in such a short time is an understatement,” said Matt Seeley, Nunes vice president of marketing.  “Our fans and distribution grows daily, and we believe that we have discovered the next big trend in produce.”

From a sales perspective, Classen said it is a spot market item priced on a daily basis with regard to supply and demand. But he added that it has a price point that is generally in line with the other greens, including kale.

At the current time, Nunes offers BroccoLeaf only as an organic product, which Classen said dovetails well with a current retail trend. He said when it comes to greens and other similar items, retailers often only carry an organic SKU if the price point for organic and conventional are similar. It is not uncommon to only see organic collard greens or certain fresh herbs for example, in a conventional supermarket.

Foxy Organics sells BroccoLeaf by the count offering both 12- and 24-count cartons.

The Nunes sales manager said the organic sector continues to be a strong growth area for the firm. He said more and more conventional retailers are expanding their organic produce sections, reacting to consumer demand.

“In most items, we offer both conventional and organic product,” he said. “Our goal is to give our customers a choice.”

He explained the popularity of BroccoLeaf by the buyer community as satisfying its need for something new. It’s a great product and “retailers are always looking for new ideas and the next big thing. It has generated a lot of interest and we follow up, day by day increasing our orders.”

He said the new product has wide distribution coast to coast.