Sixty three percent of the adult population is on a restrictive diet of some type, and most of these diets encourage fruit consumption. Given that fruits essentially have none of these detriments, the small fruit marketer should be touting their finer points. The superior freshness and flavor of your berries compared to supermarket berries may be obvious to you, but it cannot hurt to reinforce this fact to the customer. In a 1987 consumer survey conducted by The Packer, supermarket strawberries and peaches were ranked as the least consistent of 21 different fruits. Drawing attention to the fact that your product is of consistently high quality should help you sell more berries.
People are scared about pesticides.
Customers will undoubtedly question you about the pesticides used on the produce you are selling. You can also ensure that all pesticides are sprayed according to EPA regulations and that residues are at safe levels. Growers and marketers in the Northeast must remember that Pacific Coast growers are doing a much better job of putting quality berries on the supermarket shelves. While we on the East Coast tend to go our separate ways, West Coast growers put millions of dollars each year into research, marketing and promotion. Therefore, a knowledge of consumer behavior is essential if we are to compete with these other producers for a consumer's time and money.