西瓜能否引领果汁市场新热潮？

    考察一下商店货架，你很可能会发现各式各样的果汁口味可供选择，包括蓝莓、胡萝卜、草莓以及其它各种我们所熟悉的水果和蔬菜。

    榨汁热潮一路发展到现在，这个价值数十亿美元的市场已引得各路果蔬竞折腰，但到目前为止，有一种很受欢迎的水果仍未得到充分的开发利用，那就是西瓜。现在，美国伊利诺伊州的一名农场主正在期盼，这种大个头的水果能在榨汁市场上引发轰动。

    弗雷-塔利认为，西瓜非常适合制成果汁进行销售，她指出，美国人平均一年通常只买五次一整只的西瓜。把西瓜切片和去籽非常费时，而且必须尽快吃掉——所有这些因素都限制了西瓜的发展潜力。

    “我们选择了美国人喜爱但食用不方便的水果，并且将它加工成瓶装产品。”

    上市才短短三个月，Tsamma就已经出现在1,200多家商店的货架上，其中不乏全食超市（Whole Foods）和生鲜市场（The Fresh Market）这些知名的零售商。其它全国性的连锁店也纷纷表示出对这款每瓶用1.5磅西瓜榨成的西瓜汁的兴趣。

    Tsamma能够迅速获得食品杂货连锁店的认可，农场主弗雷-塔利功不可没，她在农场的经营上经验丰富，同时又深谙销售之道。当她还只有8岁时，就跟着母亲，将自家在伊利诺伊州南部一座面积为80英亩的小型农场里种出的西瓜送往经销商处。

    到了十几岁的时候，弗雷-塔利接手了母亲的送货工作。当时她也开始从其他的小型农场里购买西瓜和甜瓜，然后分销到美国数州的大小商店中。

    接管家族生意后，弗雷-塔利开始拓展业务。如今的弗雷农场已经在7个州拥有数千英亩的土地，还有负责农产品包装和运输的分销中心。农场规模也从最初的弗雷-塔利一人，拓展到现在农忙季节时多达600人的雇佣工。

    Tsamma（得名于非洲的一种瓜，这种瓜被认为是当今所有瓜的亲本）的意图，是在高级瓶装果蔬汁饮料市场中赢得一席之地。根据《巴伦周刊》（Barron）引用的研究咨询公司Beverage Marketing的报告数据，去年美国果蔬饮料市场的销售额高达22.5亿美元。这家公司称，自2004年以来，果蔬饮料市场的销售已增长了58%。

    瓶装果汁对消费者很有吸引力，甚至有越来越多的消费者开始购买果汁机，在家自制果汁，因为他们希望喝到更加纯天然的饮料。这种消费趋势的转变，推动了果汁、冰沙和果味饮料的销量上升，汽水等高糖饮料的销量则随之下降。

    尼尔森食品集团（Nielsen Perishables Group）的副总裁谢里•弗雷（与弗雷-塔利没有亲戚关系）表示，果汁的流行在过去几十年里起起落落，但如今的发展尤为值得关注，因为它不仅受到了关心健康的消费者的喜爱，更具有全方位的吸引力。弗雷分析，千禧一代十分热衷于寻找健康的饮食，父母们希望让孩子多喝果汁，而婴儿潮一代则希望果汁能延长寿命。

    弗雷-塔利为Tsamma制定了雄心勃勃的扩张计划，希望年销售额能在5年内冲到1.5亿美元。

    “也许有人认为我们的发展计划过于激进。而我们确实还有大量的消费者教育工作要做，好让大家了解我们的产品优势，”弗雷-塔利表示。她相信，西瓜汁的销售有一天必能与椰子汁比肩——这也是近年来十分流行的一款饮品。

    “当然，这只是我的希望，”她承认，“如果最终达不到预期，我就只好卖掉一座农场了。”（财富中文网）

    Peruse the produce aisle at your local grocery store and you’ll likely find a massive selection of juices featuring blueberries, carrots, strawberries and other familiar fruits and veggies.

    But the juicing craze — a growing, multibillion-dollar business — has up until now left one popular fruit behind: the watermelon. Now one Illinois farmer is hoping there’s still some room for the large fruit to make a splash.

    The watermelon juice in question is called Tsamma [pronounced sah-mah], and it was conceptualized earlier this year by fresh produce grower Sarah Frey-Talley. After testing a variety of flavor bases at home for a few months, Frey-Talley, the chief executive of Frey Farms, is now bringing Tsamma to major retail shelves.

    Frey-Talley believes the watermelon is a perfect fit for the juice aisle, pointing out that the average American usually buys a whole watermelon just five times a year. It can take a lot of time to slice the fruit, remove seeds, and then it has to be consumed quickly—all factors that limit its growth potential.

    “We took an inconvenient item that Americans like to eat anyway and we put it in a bottle.”

    Even though it has been on the market for just three months, Tsamma is already on the shelves in more than 1,200 stores, including Whole Foods and The Fresh Market. Other national chains are expressing interest in the beverage, which squeezes one-and-a-half pounds of watermelon into each bottle.

    Tsamma’s quick acceptance from grocery-store chains can be attributed to Frey-Talley’s experience as both a farmer and a savvy saleswoman. When Frey-Talley was as young as eight, she accompanied her mother on a delivery route for the watermelons her family grew on a small, 80-acre farm in southern Illinois.

    By the time she was a teenager, Frey-Talley took over the route from her mother, at that point she also began to purchase watermelons and cantaloupes from small farms and distribute them to stores across several states.

    Since Frey-Talley took over the family business she has expanded what is now called Frey Farms across seven states, with several thousand acres of land, and distribution centers that package and ship the produce. In the beginning, Frey-Talley worked alone, but now she employees up to 600 workers during the peak-growing season.

    Tsamma (named after a melon grown in Africa that is thought to be the parent of all melons we know today) is angling for a slice of the bottled super-premium fruit and veggie juices segment, which reported sales of $2.25 billion last year, according to a Barron’s report that cited Beverage Marketing data. Sales for that segment are up 58% since 2004, the research and consulting firm has reported.

    Consumers are gravitating toward bottled juices, and even buying more mixers to make juices at home, as they aim to drink more all-natural beverages. That shift has resulted in greater sales of juices, smoothies and flavored waters, but fewer sales of high-sugar beverages like soda.

    Sherry Frey (no relation to Frey-Talley), vice president of Nielsen Perishables Group, said the popularity of juices has ebbed and flowed the past few decades, but this time around it is notable that juices aren’t just popular with health-conscious consumers. Juice sales today have across-the-board appeal, Frey said, noting that millennials are looking for something healthy on the go, parents like to serve juices to their kids, and boomers are looking at the benefits of juicing as they look to extend their lives.

    Frey-Talley has a fairly aggressive growth plan for Tsamma, hoping annual sales will hit $150 million within five years.

    “Some might think that our plan of growth is aggressive, and we definitely have a lot of consumer education to do to get people to understand the benefits,” Frey-Talley said. She believes watermelon juice sales could one day rival the sale of coconut water — another beverage that has become wildly popular in recent years.

    “I’m hoping anyway,” she said. “Otherwise I’ll have to sell a farm.”