In the Trenches: Keys to boost organic produce growth

Ron Pelger

June 20, 2025

Do you realize how much of a difference it would make if produce department employees fully understood merchandising strategies for organic produce? Those employees could probably sell extreme volumes of organic products without batting an eye.

What’s trending in the fresh organic produce trade? Where has this category been and where is it headed? How do we progress further?

Jeff Tomassetti in front of an organic display. — Jeff Tomassetti at an organic display.

Organic produce sales grew in 2024 to $9.5 billion, which was a 5.7 percent increase over the prior year and is 12 percent of the total overall produce sales. Organic sales have been stable at 12 percent for the past few years. Are the increased sales simply the results of raised retails or from new shoppers stepping aboard the organic revolution?

Perhaps instead of investing more time and money hunting down new customers, it would be more productive to encourage existing customers to purchase more organic product.

Organics can grow in six areas to generate additional sales and profits that include new items, advertised marketing, ramping up merchandising, increasing customer base, branding its store reputation and improving employee understanding of the organic category.

Farming can also help with growth. New modern farming methods will play a huge role in the technological advancement of regenerative agriculture. State-of-the-art smart farming is revolutionizing the organic produce industry with drones to study, inspect and manage agricultural practices.

Smartphones, smart tablets and software programs provide growers with instant access to information from anywhere in the fields. Along with artificial intelligence this technology helps make more accurate decisions that is transforming organic farming to greater efficiencies.

The main objective in this business is selling. Therefore, we have to get more customers to buy more organic produce more often at the retail level.

So, what do we need to elevate that organic percentage of produce sales? As I see it, there are two ingredients that are essential to get our foot out of that 12 percent bear trap — more consumer knowledge and aggressive merchandising strategies. These two vital approaches are critical in the retail arena in order to influence organic produce to consistent top-level growth.

I asked two highly respected produce directors: By what means do you communicate with your customers to provide knowledge about organic produce? And, other than your normal organic produce section, how do you merchandise and promote specific items off-shelf?

Vince Mastromauro, produce director for Sunset Foods/Grand Food Center in Highland Park, IL, said, “We connect with our customers through our ads and speak through our social media platforms. We promote and apply secondary displays at the front entrances of our stores to show off the outstanding organic produce items such as summer stone fruit. My rule of thumb is that the organic stone fruit up front needs to be tote bagged or in grab-and-go containers. I feel that this merchandising method stimulates the impulse when customers see the fresh organic product as they enter and do not have to think twice about having to select it. Hence, grab and go.”

Jeff Tomassetti, produce and floral director for Buehler’s Fresh Foods in Wooster, OH, said, “We have a Healthy Living section in our ad where we always offer organic or vegan selections that would be a healthier choice for the customer at a great value. We also apply in-store signage and a special section in our ad. We instruct the stores to promote our organic ad items in a secondary display spot the same way they would with conventional produce. At times, if the price is cohesive, we only carry organic beets, bunch carrots, chards, kales etc. to help cut down on shrinkage.”

Chasing customers out your door is easy to do. Produce employees who do not know facts about their organic products send a message of distrust to customers. Customer retention is an absolute necessity these days. The reliability of consumer knowledge about organic produce is one of the main ingredients in holding on to current customers.

In order to build your organic growth in this fast-paced business world today, you had better work on key objectives without losing a grip on customers. Understand all you can about organic knowledge and merchandising before it’s too late.

My merchandising philosophy is simple. If you want to grow a specific category, you have to do three things: