Ruiz Sales has been seeing a greater demand for bagged limes, according to Richard Ruiz, president of the Edinburg, TX-based company, which handles a variety of Mexican tropical items, with an emphasis on Persian limes.

Ruiz explained that bagged product offers advantages for the distributor and consumer alike. For consumers, it is easier and faster to select product, and it tends to be a better value, especially if product is top-quality.Richard Ruiz and Rick Salinas with a bag of Ruiz Sales limes. Ruiz said the company’s bagged lime program has risen in popularity, as it offers benefits to consumers and retailers alike. For retailers, bagged limes is easier for store personnel to handle, and it requires fewer man-hours to set up and maintain displays.

“We took a different approach and put top-quality limes in our bagged program,” said Ruiz. “For many other shippers, bagged produce has just been about selling bulk. But for us, it’s about selling quality.”

Ruiz said that how he views the bagged lime program is in line with his philosophy of only providing the best quality to consumers, in order to gain the trust — and the repeat business — of consumers.

“Instead of providing the customer with the bare minimum in terms of quality, we’ve chosen to go all the way, putting our premium quality produce in bags,” he said. “Providing a positive consumer experience is our major focus as a company. When a customer has a good expeience, they always come back to buy more, which benefits everyone. It benefits the retailer and vendor by making more sales, and it benefits the customer by giving them something they want, something they need, something they won’t have to throw away, and ultimately, something they will buy again.”

Ruiz believes that price is not an obstacle for sales, and that consumers will pay a higher price for top-quality product.

“Studies done by the Produce for Better Health Foundation and other organizations have shown that consumers do not mind paying a little more for produce as long as it is good quality and safe to eat,” said Ruiz. “In fact, the massive expansion of the organic foods industry is proof that as long as retailers provide the products consumers want, they will pay extra for it and will continue to buy it.”

Ruiz said that the industry needs to work on keeping the quality aspect at the forefront.

“Good, premium quality produce is affordable, and inexpensive, poor-quality produce is unaffordable,” he said. “Any purchase where you have to throw away product is an expensive purchase, and it’s something we need to work on as an industry to prevent that from happening. We owe it to our consumers, especially the moms and kids, to make sure we give them the best produce possible.”

Ruiz Sales also places a great deal of importance on customer service.

“My feeling is it is not enough to just supply the customer with top-quality produce, you also need to provide information and education about the produce they are eating,” said Ruiz. “Information such as storage instructions, color analysis, recipes, nutritional aspects, packing and farm information and other material is invaluable. Customers are looking for more and more information about the foods they eat, and they have increasingly more choices about what to buy and where to buy from. As an industry, we need to help guide them into making the right choices to keep them from defecting to unhealthy snack foods. That will help increase produce consumption across the country and will make for a healthier America.”

Over all, Ruiz said that the “future of our produce industry looks bright, but we need to stay ahead and give consumers what they want. People are hungry for top-quality produce and information about what they eat. We want to provide them with both.”