The SmartFresh Quality system has boosted sales of apples in Dutch supermarkets, according to new data.
The three-month AC Nielsen study of Elstar apple sales across 24 stores reported a 12 per cent increase in sales of SmartFresh product.
AC Nielsen compared sales between twelve retail stores selling SmartFresh Quality Elstar apples with twelve other stores selling Elstar without the SmartFresh benefits.
The data also reported a twenty-five per cent overall reduction in inventory loss during the test period -which can be put down to the better shelf life of the Elstar SmartFresh Quality apples.
The SmartFresh Quality System, which was developed by US-based AgroFresh Inc., is aimed at maintaining the freshness, quality, flavour and nutritional content of apples, and other fruit and vegetables, from the time they are harvested.
Marc Tielens, AgroFresh’s European retail manager, said: “I believe the sales difference would have been even greater had the study continued for more than three months. More and more consumers would have realized that SmartFresh Elstars were crunchier, juicier and stayed fresh for a longer time at home.”
An increase of two per cent was reported in stores selling SmartFresh Quality Elstar apples compared to the other stores after five weeks. This increase got bigger as consumers seemed to realise the better quality, taste and texture of the SmartFresh apples and came back to purchase more, according to Tielens.
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