Though the firm has been selling organic carrots for more than a half dozen years, Kern Ridge Growers LLC Account Representative Chris Smotherman said “it is still a relatively new item for us and we’re still trying to get our brand known.”

The company ships organic carrots under the “All Natural” label and offers packs very similar to its conventional carrot line up. The Arvin, CA-based company sells one, two, five, 25 and 50 pound whole carrots as well as peeled carrots in several consumer packs ranging from three ounces to five pounds. In addition, they sell whole organic carrots for juicing in 25 and 50 pound sacks.

Smotherman said it is the buying of organic carrots for juicing that seem to have the most traction for the company. And that is true whether it is consumers buying one or two or five pound packs in a health food store or wholesalers buying the juice carrots in bulk for a juicing operation. “We think the greatest sales (for the organic carrots) are to people who are using it as an ingredient rather than as a whole carrot,” he said.

While Kern Ridge sells its “All Natural” organic brand from coast to coast — as it does with its “Kern Ridge” conventional label — Smotherman confirmed that its sales are heaviest in the West and that is definitely true for its organic carrots as well.

As far as pricing is concerned, he said the organic carrot market operates on its own without much regard to the supply and demand curve for the conventional carrot. But as a rule of thumb, he said the organic carrot gets a premium of about 75 percent above conventional per SKU. He said it is the limited supplies that create the premium, but revealed that it is a more difficult product to grow and it does cost more to bring a bag of organic carrots to market compared to their conventional cousin.

For the most part, Kern Ridge sells much of its organic output to the same buyers purchasing the conventional carrots. Carrots are one of the top items in the supermarket so almost any retailer with an organic section — and that’s pretty much everyone these days — is stocking an organic carrot, including both peeled and whole carrots.

Smotherman has noted an increase in demand for organic carrots this past year as the economy has picked up. “We did notice that sales fell off with the recession but just now demand is coming back,” he said.