Organic garlic makes up a small fraction of organic produce sales, but its sales are growing. Offering organic garlic to your customers rounds out your organic category as garlic is never eaten alone.
Encourage consumers to choose organic garlic by promoting both garlic’s health benefits and the organic growing methods used to produce it. Cross-promote garlic with bread baked with organic ingredients, along with organic seafoods and meats.
Promote organic garlic as a great addition to winter soups and stews and include it in marketing aimed at health-conscious consumers after the winter holidays.
Consider offering organic garlic in packaged form as it will avoid cross-contamination issues with conventional garlic. Chopped organic garlic and purple garlic are available so consider adding them to your organic garlic display to offer as many options as possible.
Keep garlic away from misters and rotate the garlic so the bottom layer does not dry out. Include chopped garlic on the display, which offers a convenience option to consumers.
Pair garlic with organic tomatoes as it is a natural pairing. Garlic and tomatoes go together in tomato sauce and salsa. Offer recipe ideas on your display to encourage consumers to pick up other organic items to make a full meal.
Shipping
Organic garlic is most often shipped in cartons of 12, 3-ounce bags or 30-pound bulk cartons. It is also available chopped in cartons fo 12, 4.25-ounce containers. Purple garlic is shipped in 30-pound cartons.
Handling
Temperature: 32 to 34 F, 0 to 1 C
Relative humidity: 65-75%
Mist: no
Typical shelf life: 90 to 120 days
Store in a well-ventilated place.
Always keep elephant and conventional garlic dry; moisture is damaging.
When stacking containers in the back room, make sure to stack organic items at the top so residue from conventional produce doesn’t drip down onto the organic items.
Organic items can be stored side by side in the cooler as long as no product is touching and no residue can drip from the conventional onto the organic product.
