The Rise of Premium Convenience Foods

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

One common trend food companies and manufacturers have seen after the pandemic is that consumers are most attracted to premium products that are still convenient. Casey Call, co-founder of Zordi says that’s why they’ve focused on growing snackable, ultra-sweet Korean berries that are 2-3 times sweeter than average variety.

Call.. "More towards snacking, higher quality snacking vegetables. You've seen this with the mini cucumbers in your grocery store. Now there are snacking peppers that people are starting to catch onto. Tim, you and I have talked about this before, but this supply-driven system, right, that we have where, you know what can make it to your shelf by the time it is. It's still appetizing looking, and you'll eat it. And in the United States, you know, we have this mass production system that does that, but it doesn't really result in a lot of high flavor, you know, and that's why, you know, just as an example, that's what people go to farmer's markets, right? They go to the farmer's market, oh, I want this other type of tomato or this other thing. And so there's so many examples of like, if I had an heirloom tomato up here from a farmer's market and I had a beef steak from a grocery store, if you present those two things to consumers side by side, people start to make different decisions, right? And I think where we're at with all of this is we're moving towards that, right? We have to provide some of these goods for the consumer to even know that they're available or that they’re options."

You can find Zordi berries in New York retailers, but they hope to expand to other regions of the country soon.