The journey to becoming a frozen fruit supplier is an extensive process but completely worth the effort. Every fruit supplier serves the hospitality industry, grocery stores, and F&B manufacturers. All three sectors make up a massive market. Therefore, the best frozen fruit suppliers have the potential to maximize profits in multiple areas.
But that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Frozen fruit helps add substantial amounts of vitamins and nutrients to standard recipes and emerging food trends. As healthy living and organic recipes continue to boom in popularity, the demand for frozen fruit wholesalers will only rise from here.
Are you interested in selling frozen fruit wholesale? Whether you’re already in the process of starting your wholesale business or need some clarification here and there, we’ve got you covered! Continue reading to learn more about supplying frozen produce.
What Is a Frozen Fruit Supplier?
A frozen fruit supplier is a company that packages and sells frozen fruit to the masses. Many frozen fruit suppliers also produce wholesale frozen vegetables. After all, many regulations, sourcing practices, and safety guidelines apply to both food groups
There are three primary customers of a frozen fruit supplier which are:
- Eateries all across the restaurant industry. Some of your highest-paying customers will be juice bars, smoothie shops, and those that serve smoothie bowls.
- Food manufacturing companies that utilize frozen fruit in their recipes. Examples of these manufacturers are ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt business models.
- Grocery stores that have several frozen food aisles with extensive options.
It’s worth noting that not every frozen fruit supplier sells fresh fruit to the public. But is frozen fruit as healthy as fresh fruit? It sure is! In fact, experts who speak to the frozen fruit vs fresh fruit debate may argue that properly freezing fruit helps “lock in” its nutritional value. If this kind of product is of interest to you, read on! We’ll cover more about becoming a frozen fruit supplier in the next section.
How to Become a Frozen Fruit Supplier In 11 Easy Steps
Are you ready to become one of the food and beverage industry’s leading frozen fruit suppliers? If so, this section should be a valuable starting point. See below:
1. Conduct Market Research
Before you can start creating a frozen fruit supply company, you need to thoroughly research the market. For instance, the organic food sector might be using new methods in preserving fresh produce.
It’s also vital to research the demands for various frozen fruits and blends. A close look at consumer behavior will help you determine which type of products to sell, too. Once you have a clear idea as to who will likely purchase your products, creating a buyer persona for your ideal customer profile will be a breeze.
2. Choose How You’ll Source Different Fruits
One of the first decisions you must make before anything else is choosing how you’ll go about harvesting the fruits needed to run a wholesale business. Will you be outsourcing fruits from a farm? Or, will your supply company own and operate the land yourselves? These are just two of many questions that you must ask yourself regarding the way you’ll source fruits to freeze. There are many domestic and international agricultural companies that can supply seeds, too.
3. Understand Cold Chain Logistics and Shipping Methods
Once you have a system in place for sourcing, harvesting, and packaging frozen fruit, it’s time to deliver it to customers. However, shipping frozen goods is significantly different from other types of products. Frozen fruit must be moved from a temperature-controlled warehouse to trucks that have freezers.
If products are not in freezers while in transit, it’s the supplier's responsibility to pack boxes accordingly. However, the reassurance of opting for freezer space while in-transit will be worth the expense. After all, this cost will be a factor when choosing a pricing strategy and won’t result in spoiled fruit–an expense altogether.
4. Meet Regulatory Compliance Standards
You can’t become a food supplier of any kind without following legal guidelines. Depending on your state and municipality, you’ll have to acquire certificates for the facility in which you operate. It’s also a must that all of the crops and agricultural space your fruits come from are certified by sufficient organizations and regulators. Food safety is at the core of compliance standards, so check with both your local and federal authorities to confirm next steps. Laws and regulations are constantly changing, so it’s best to seek professional advice for these matters.
5. Acquire Safe and Efficient Packaging Materials
Safety and freshness should be top priorities for any frozen fruit supplier. Once you have frozen food ready for consumption, it’s time to package it all up. Invest in wholesale packaging, such as thick plastic bags that will keep the frozen fruit safe and delicious.
It’s also important to use packaging materials that you can easily print on. This way, you’ll be able to add your logo, text, and imagery in an attractive way. And most importantly, you need the nutrition label to be clear and abide by compliance standards.
6. Choose Processing and Preserving Methods
Once you harvest ample amounts of fruit, you’ll need to process, preserve, and freeze them. However, if you supply organic frozen fruit, rinsing and storing methods might be the bulk of this step. However, it’s just as important to understand the effects of freezing fruit and the risks of frozen produce defrosting before it reaches the customer.
Frozen fruit is protected from the rapid growth of mold, bacteria, and yeast. Once frozen fruit reaches low enough temperatures to thaw, the growth of microorganisms will expedite. Not only does food spoilage lead to foul flavors and odors, but it raises major health and safety concerns. As a fruit supplier, it’s essential to ensure freshness at all times.
7. Add Your Products to a Wholesale Directory
After you have a product catalog, integrate it with a wholesale directory like BlueCart. In doing so, companies and manufacturers all over the world will have access to your product line. As you can imagine, this will drastically increase revenue on your end. Plus, you won’t have to compromise contact with your clients, access to data, or any other downsides that might coincide with other order fulfillment platforms.
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8. Implement Marketing Strategies
Once you have sourcing and packaging procedures in place, it’s time to market your frozen fruit to the masses. Luckily, there are many ways that a frozen fruit supplier can promote their product line. The easiest way to do this is by investing time and money into online marketing efforts, like SEM, SEO, and social media.
In this day and age, operating an eCommerce website is a must. From there, you can connect with retailers and farming companies in search of partnerships. If you’re willing to travel, participating in wholesale produce trade shows could be beneficial networking opportunities. During such events, your wholesale company can boost brand visibility and awareness.
Oh, and you know the wholesale marketplace we mentioned in the last step? We allow wholesale frozen fruit suppliers to market their products on the BlueCart app. So if you ever offer discounts or promotions, your clientele could see a banner ad on their dashboard. These kinds of ads can result in new purchase orders or a scheduled reorder point.
9. Determine a Pricing Strategy
Analyze the costs you incur to harvest, process, package, and ship your frozen fruit. Then, determine a pricing strategy that will allow your supply company to remain competitive yet profitable. Whether you offer white or private label frozen fruit will be a factor in your pricing strategy. But referring back to the selection of a target audience, identifying your customers will help dictate a price catalog. Plus, each product may differ in price.
10. Create an Operational Structure
The work of a frozen fruit supplier is extensive. It’s essential to invest in sufficient labor, facilities, and equipment to produce frozen fruit products that meet industry standards. These factors will play a role in your product line's quality and scalability. So, select the best options across the board.
From manufacturing appliances to an experienced team, there are many working parts of a frozen fruit supplier. It’s also necessary to use facilities that abide by health and safety requirements. If not, passing inspections and selling products might not be feasible. Besides, as a leading frozen fruit supplier, you should strive to sell the best selections.
11. Plan for the Future
Once you have all the necessary systems in place, the strategic planning still isn’t over! Any successful business owner will tell you that it’s essential to plan for the future. So, what will that look like for a fruit supplier? Consider any potential market disruptors and how your business will adapt. It’s also smart to keep an eye on supply chain disruptions and how they could impact sales, the product’s quality, and so on. If you feel that these are issues you can prevent, how will you do so? You must consider all possible risks, and the strategies you’ll implement to overcome them.
Become an Industry-Leading Frozen Fruit Supplier
Are you considering the many ways that your wholesale business can maximize revenue? If so, we’ve got a tool that can help you scale your company. With BlueCart’s platform, you can expand your customer base, increasing your bottom line like you’ve ever done before. Schedule a demo with us to view it in action, inquire about related features, and more!