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VOLUME 91 • NUMBER 3 MAY 2026 • $7.00 • Study Shows Demand Surge for Affordable Staples Underscores Mounting Crisis PAGE 4
• Cruise-Goers Seek Experimental Dining, Global Flavors, F&B@Sea Report Says PAGE 6
• Clean-Label Ingredient Demand Boosts Global Avocado Oil Market, Survey Shows PAGE 9
• XAgriculture Adds $10.4T to U.S. Economy, Generates 49M Jobs, Annual Report Says PAGE 13
• KeHE Distributors Relaunches Wild Oats as CPG Brand, Juice Line Produced PAGE 14
N E W S P A P E R
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• Featured Products PAGE 19
• Advertiser Index PAGE 22
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I N D U S T R Y
Natural Products Expo West Thrives After 45 Years of Promoting Industry BY A.J. FLICK
Forty-five years ago, trade magazine publisher Doug Greene organized the first Natural Foods Expo as a way to connect natural brands and retailers. “I never dreamed Expo would make a profit,” Greene, 76, said in a rare interview published in the magazine he founded, Natural Foods Merchandiser. “In my mind, it was how much can I afford to lose on this and not go out of business? “We were a magazine company doing an event on the side to help our magazine and help our industry. But we sent out a flyer selling booths, and the money
poured in. It was like, oh, wow. People really want this. I think we had 580 booths,” he said. “We really don’t know how many people attended the first year because we registered people with manual typewriters,” Greene said. “I’d say we had about 3,000. “Unfortunately, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday are bad days for a convention. Well, Sunday had a great crowd, and everyone was excited. Watching people walk across the parking lot that morning and actually come was one of the great moments of my life. They’re really here!” The first Expo also featured
panel discussions. “Heroes were made that day. People who had never spoken before became leaders,” he said. Then, history intervened. On the second day of the Expo, March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was wounded by a would-be assassin. “Everybody left and never came back,” Greene recalled. “The first day was good, and the last two days were an absolute disaster – empty. So people didn’t know whether this event had worked or not. But they gave us another chance. We did a lot of
BY SCOTT BORDOW
It’s just past 8:30 on a Wednesday morning and already more than 50 people are in line waiting for Barrio Bread bakery in Tucson, Ariz., to open. The doors to the bakery, located just east of downtown Tucson, open at 9 a.m., and for the next three hours, a continuous stream of customers comes through, buying loaves of bread and chatting with owner Don Guerra, who won a James Beard
Award in 2022 for outstanding baker. Guerra seems to know most of his customers, many of whom have been coming to his bakery weekly, if not daily, since it opened in 2015. Tom Trebisky has lived in Tucson since 1970. He could get bread anywhere in town. But Barrio is the only place he goes, and there’s a simple reason he gives for that: “Life is too short to eat bad bread.” Finally, a little after noon, Guerra can sit down for a few
Industry Reacts To McCormick, Unilever Merger BY A.J. FLICK
minutes. He settles onto a stool and talks about his life, his family, why the simple act of baking once made him drop to his knees and cry in gratitude, and his new role as the baker-in-residence for Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies. As part of that role, Guerra gave a lecture, titled “Bread without Borders,” in March at the Tempe campus, talking about his life’s journey – a journey that started not in Tucson, but in the
In late March, news that Unilever plans to merge its food business with McCormick in a $65 billion deal sent shockwaves through the industry as well as initial caution on the stock market. CNN called the proposed merger a “grocery staples behemoth” that “comes at a difficult time for food companies.” “Customers are fickle, and Kraft Heinz has struggled to persuade customers to buy packaged food that customers no longer view as healthy,” CNN reported. “Pepsi was forced to lower prices as consumers struggle with inflation. And Kellogg split up its company to get out of the snacking business. “Unilever believes its food business is better off merging with a rival,” CNN reported. “The companies said that the combination has complementary global footprints and will ‘benefit from expanded global reach, enhanced scale across retail and foodservice channels and greater resources to invest in innovation, brand-building and global distribution.’ They also expect to save about $300 million a year in costs from combining forces.
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James Beard Award Winner Don Guerra Shares His Journey Special to Gourmet News
• Ranchers, Schools Connect in Ranch-to-Tray Tours
F O R
Seafood Market Is Expected to Gain Momentum Amid rising food prices, inflation and tariffs, North American consumers entered the new year with wallet wariness, prioritizing bargains and deals at the grocery store, while also considering other important factors such as convenience and wellness. In 2025, inflation impacted both meat and seafood prices at U.S. retail stores. Presenting at the 2026 Global Seafood Market Conference, 210 Analytics Principal Anne-Marie Roerink said beef soared 7.5 percent to $7.18
per pound on average, pork prices rose 2.1 percent to $3.27 and chicken prices increased 3.3 percent to $3.17. While inflation on seafood was relatively low, rising 2.1 percent to $10.52 per pound on average in 2025, the category was not immune to the effects of rising prices, and the consumer perception that comes along with it. “Seafood inflation was low compared with meat, but seafood has a higher starting point and price perception,” Roerink said. As inflation continues to rise –
with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating that Americans are now paying 26 percent more for food than they did five years ago – consumer confidence has plummeted. Moreover, Americans are dealing with a sense of overall economic unease, stemming from factors such as an ever-changing tariff landscape. “Consumer sentiment has been on a roller coaster ride,” Roerink said. “By and large, consumers are concerned about the sustained level of inflation and [whether they] have a job tomor-
row.” Despite ending the year with an increase in seafood sales by value, sales by volume declined in most seafood categories in December, largely due to inflation. The Consumer Price Index for December showed that overall seafood inflation rose 4.4 percent compared to the same month a year prior. Frozen and shelf-stable seafood recorded the largest price increases, each climbing 8.4 perContinued on PAGE 10