I’ve been told there are no such thing as baby carrots, and that the ones you buy at the store are just regular carrots cut and peeled down to “baby” size.
Busted! Well, partially.
There are real baby carrots! Aren’t they cute? You can find them in the grocery store next to the baby corn and mini-bananas.
But the part about baby carrots being created from larger carrots is also true. And it turns out the “manufactured” baby carrots are far more popular, and their story is a great business lesson.
In the 1980s, California carrot farmer Mike Yurosek grew sick of throwing away thousands of pounds of un-sellable (bent, twisted, knobby, partially rotted) carrots. This waste was common; Mike and other farmers would routinely scrap a third of their carrot crop or more.
Yurosek figured if he could salvage any part of these wasted carrots, it would all be gravy. He cut the reject carrots into 2 inch pieces, peeled them, packed them in plastic bags, and branded them Bunny-Luv.
And the rest is history. Today baby carrots are a $400 million business and outsell regular carrots 4 to 1. Not bad for a little side project aimed at reducing waste! What other “baby carrot” opportunities might we be sitting on right now?
Did You Know?
- Carrots are now grown specifically for the purpose of making them into baby carrots. Farmers are actually breeding them to grow longer to increase their per-carrot yield.
- Baby carrots are somewhat less nutritious than regular carrots, because the skin and nearby surface lost in the manufacturing process are very nutrient-rich.
- Overall carrot consumption has increased 33-50% since the introduction of baby carrots.
- Bakersfield, CA is the carrot-capital of the US.
Source: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk
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Tags: business, california, food
