In the “Food & Wine” section of its May 28th edition, Toronto’s daily paper — The Star — headlined a story with the provocative title “Newfangled BroccoLeaf leaves kale green with envy.”

It is this type of publicity that is propelling The Nunes Co.’s innovative new vegetables on to the ordering list of buyers across North America. Doug Classen, sales manager of the Salinas, CA-based firm that markets its produce under the Foxy brand, said the item is experiencing steady growth and the firm is very happy with its progress.  

As its name implies, BroccoLeaf does refer to the heretofore unmarketed and uneaten leaves that are prevalent on a broccoli plant.  The young leaves, which are the preferred product, tend to congregate in the middle of the plant surrounding a young, burgeoning broccoli bunch.  Research revealed that these leaves are chock full of nutrients and tend to be less bitter than kale thus leading to The Star’s headline.

To keep up with the demand, The Nunes Co. continues to offer the product in a variety of packs. Initially, it came in bulk with six or 12 bunches packed to the carton. Recently, the firm introduced a bagged BroccoLeaf program with six 12-ounce bags to a carton.

Classen said with its limited production, BroccoLeaf has not yet created a market price of its own, but the company prices it competitively with other products in the salad category such as kale. The Nunes executive said sales have been brisk with both retail and foodservice customers coming from all categories.  High-end specialty retailers were the first to give it a try, but it quickly moved to conventional retailers and now club stores are placing orders.

He definitely credits the media for putting BroccoLeaf on the map.  He noted that stories in the New York Times and USA Today in recent months help bolster sales. USA Today put BroccoLeaf on its “Foodies” list for 2015.

The Nunes Co. only harvests BroccoLeaf from its organic broccoli fields so it is only available as an organic item. While most of the firm’s vegetables are offered as both conventional and organic, BroccoLeaf is still very new and it’s difficult to imagine a retailer carrying both conventional and organic at this point.  In fact, that is a developing trend at retail as organic sales grow and price points for conventional and organic product converge. More and more retailers are opting to just carry an organic item if there is no compelling reason to carry both, which tends to be the case with specialty products.

Classen said The Nunes Co.’s organic sales continue to increase. With the expansion of its asparagus program in the organic sector this spring, the firm now has a robust organic option for each if its conventional products.  All of the company’s sales people represent both lines to their customers but there is a team of organic sales people that focus primarily on that sector.  He said it is all about giving customers a choice.