Nick Erker: Hey, there. Welcome to Get the Scoop with Smirks Podcast, where bulk ingredient conversation happens. We’re sharing our knowledge and expertise as bulk ingredient importers, tapping into the latest trends we are seeing and commenting on what that means for natural food businesses as they approach ingredient purchasing, product development, and marketing. You’ll hear the latest market reports, ingredient specifications, and product applications from Smirk’s in-house experts, as well as origin stories from our growers and processors around the world. Listen in for the scoop on what’s happening with bulk ingredients.
Nick Erker: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Get the Scoop with Smirks Podcast. I’m Nick Erker, and with me today is Donny Edson. Snacks have become a big business, and consumers are not only enjoying snacks in between meals, but we’re witnessing what some people call the “snackification” of meals. In other words, many busy people are actually consuming snacks as a meal replacement. Based on information from Circana, formerly IRI, 49% of consumers eat three or more snacks a day. That’s up 4% over two years ago. Consumers are looking for healthy snacking choices. There are so many amazing snacks that we could explore, but today, we’d like to do a deep dive into trail mixes, which have become incredibly popular. In fact, the trail mix market in the United States is estimated to be worth around $7.4 billion.
Donny Edson: Those statistics don’t surprise me, Nick. You can find a trail mix nearly everywhere you shop, including traditional grocery stores, natural food stores, club stores, specialty stores, like drugstores, online, and in convenience stores.
Nick Erker: But what’s cool about trail mixes is that every brand can position their own trail mix in so many different ways to compete in the marketplace and capture their own following.
Donny Edson: Yeah, when you think about it, there’s a lot to consider when you’re building a trail mix, such as the flavors, product attributes, callouts, product ingredients, packaging formats, and price point. And, of course, you want to consider industry trends in your own target audience.
Nick Erker: Let’s break it down, starting with what some of the classic flavor profiles are for trail mixes.
Donny Edson: Traditionally, trail mixes contain nuts, raisins-coated chocolate pieces known as gems, and maybe some banana chips. Decades ago, people called it gorp, and they brought it with them when they went on a hike or backpacking. Here’s a bit of a folklore. Some people say the gorp stood for good old raisins and peanuts. This type of mix still has a following, and you can find something like it in almost any mainstream grocery store or convenience store.
Nick Erker: What is trending in the way of trail mix concepts based on what you’ve seen at Expo West or at retail, Donny?
Donny Edson: What’s cool is now there’s a trail mix for every taste, profile, or mood. You can find spicy mixes, sweet mixes, or an amazing blend of both sweet and savory. There are mixes with special seasonings, whether it be an Asian inspired seasoned with Wasabi, Cajun spice, Tex Mex, barbecue flavors, and more. In general, the more we see ethnic stack’s popularity grow, the more it is likely to influence the flavor profile of trail mixes, too.
Nick Erker: You mentioned earlier that product attributes and callouts can be an important thing in trail mixes. What attributes are popular these days?
Donny Edson: One of the most popular right now is non-GMO. Consumers may be health conscious and aware of what non-GMO means, but they’re looking for value. So, they may seek out non-GMO, but maybe they don’t necessarily need the product to be certified organic. By the way, as Smirks, we are asked for non-GMO documentation all the time and we can supply it. Our product line is focused on non-GMO conventional products as well as certified organic products.
Nick Erker: So, Donny, you’re talking about non-GMO conventional and organic products. What’s the difference between certified organic and non-GMO?
Donny Edson: Well, Nick, that’s a great question. Organic products cater to a consumer who is willing to pay a premium for a product that’s been grown organically without the use of specified pesticides. Typically, this is part of an overall lifestyle to consume all or as many organic products as possible. In addition to that, to become certified organic, there are several rules and laws that have to be followed by the growers, the processors, and the handlers, most of which is that no pesticides have been added to the land where the product’s growing for at least three years. Non-GMO refers to genetically modified organisms and GMOs pertain mostly to some of the bigger commodities that you see in the world today. Soybeans and corn probably being the biggest ones. One of the benefits about most, if not all the products we carry is none of them have actually been genetically modified or do genetically modified versions of them exist?
Nick Erker: That’s very interesting. Something else that we hear a lot about and people are concerned about is gluten-free. Is that something that people should be worried about in trail mixes?
Donny Edson: I mean, gluten-free is another attribute to keep in mind as about 6 to 7% of Americans are gluten intolerant or have celiac disease. For this population, it’s important that they avoid any wheat or wheat-based ingredients. So, they are looking for a gluten-free callout. One thing to consider is that sales are growing in this area. If a person in a household is gluten-free, there’s a good chance the entire family eats gluten-free products. But one of the really good benefits of trail mixes is almost all the ingredients are already gluten-free. Unless you start adding some things in there, such as a cracker or a sesame stick or something that’s made with wheat.
Nick Erker: Yeah, that’s a great point. My fiancé just recently went gluten-free and has seen a lot of benefits in energy and different things. So along with gluten-free, you’re seeing Keto a lot more recently, too. Keto kind of showed up a few years ago and was wondering if that would last. What are your thoughts about keto?
Donny Edson: Keto is a popular callout. I thought it may be short-lived, too, but we continue to see products geared toward those who are on a keto diet. People who are just trying to watch their carbohydrate intake and also looking for keto product labels as well.
Nick Erker: So, Donny, we talked about a lot of callouts in different things to be mindful of when working on a trail mix. Are there any other considerations for callouts that you think people should be mindful of?
Donny Edson: Yeah, for sure, Nick. I mean, protein is a popular attribute that seems to have a staying power, and that applies to trail mixes as well. Active people are looking for products that are high in protein that can help keep them full. Some trail mixes featuring certain nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, and peanuts may have high levels of protein. For all callouts, we always suggest consulting FDA guidelines before you make nutritional claims. Another consideration when you’re thinking about your ingredient mix ingredient deck, do you need the product to contain no artificial preservatives. Do you need no artificial flavors and colors? And is added sugar acceptable or not? Defining your criteria, will not only help you define potential callouts you can put on the bag, but it will help you to define what is required when you are sourcing your ingredients.
Nick Erker: So now let’s do a little bit more of a deeper dive into the product ingredients as we continue our conversation here today. And as we do that, what are some of the popular products that you’re seeing being used these days in trail mixes?
Donny Edson: Your typical trail mix combination of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and other add-ons like chocolate pieces cocoa gems, or coconut. Sometimes other specialty items that are added like sesame sticks, pretzels, wasabi peas, and other snack pieces, and seasonings may be added for flavor. Starting with the nuts, you might select two or more nuts such as almonds, peanuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, or pecans. Seeds are a great addition for flavor, texture, and small size, and to add to your nutritional profile. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are a good option. In addition to that, sunflower seeds are a really inexpensive ingredient that can help to fill your bags up. If your facility does not have the capability to roast, smirks can assist in providing ready-to-eat nuts and seeds that have either been roasted or pasteurized.
Nick Erker: That’s a great point, Donny. Yeah, we can do a lot of those different items and help with the value-added products that our customers are looking for. As you mentioned in your last segment here, you were asking about or mentioning ready-to-eat products. What does ready-to-eat mean?
Donny Edson: Well, I think first and foremost, food safety needs to be on everybody’s mind. And when these things come out of the ground or they’re processed from the factory, they’re not always necessarily ready to eat. They are considered raw and at Smirks, we consider a raw ingredient, something that has not gone through pasteurization or sterilization or some kind of a method that uses heat to kill any possible pathogens that could be harmful to somebody. So ready to eat, to us, means that the product’s gone through some kind of a validated kill step so that it is ready to eat. You don’t want to put the raw product in a bag because even though it may test okay, there’s no guarantee that the raw product is always safe to eat.
Nick Erker: That’s a great point. A lot of things to be aware of and consider when you’re putting together your product list and your ingredients. So, as you’re looking at some of that, what about dried fruits? Are a lot of people looking at dried fruits these days?
Donny Edson: Yeah, I think I mean, personally, dried fruits are one of the biggest opportunities for growth right now. And as we’ve talked about in the past on podcasts and we talk about customers all the time, there’s so much cool innovation that’s happening in dried fruit right now that I think it’s a great thing to consider when you’re adding into the trail mixes. And because there’s a lot of single ingredient fruits that are going on now too. So, adding one or more dried fruits brings sweetness and a different flavor to the mix. Dried cranberries, blueberries, banana chips, raisins or sultanas. There are dried cherries, dried mango pieces or dice, dried pineapple, dried strawberry, and goji berries are some options. When considering dried fruits to help narrow down the specification, ask yourself these questions. Do you want to use organic or conventional dried fruit? Are additives like sugar okay? If not sugar, is another sweetener like apple juice acceptable? Are any preservatives such as sulfides not acceptable? If size pertains, such as the size of a mango dice, what is the size range that works for you? Is there a maximum moisture level you need to stay below to prevent moisture transfer?
Chocolate is another component that might be included, such as a chocolate chip or a cocoa gem. We can even offer chocolate drops flavored with coconut sugar instead of cane sugar if you’re looking for a low glycemic, alternatively sweetened option. Other great items are coconut chips or coconut smiles, which add great flavor and texture.
Nick Erker: You know, I just ate, but talking about all these trail mixes is making me hungry. And one of the things I think about a lot when I’m going to grab a trail mix is some of the packaging. So what are your thoughts on the trail mix packaging formats and some of the price points that people should be considered of?
Donny Edson: There really are so many options for packaging formats, from single-serve pillow packs all the way up to club-size extra-large standup bags with zipper closures. With single-serve packages, it’s a small bag around one and a half to 2oz and is something you can typically find at a convenience store on the front of a checkout counter at a specialty store. The most popular size is either a very large bag or a single-serve bag. You can line item your average cost of each ingredient and then play around with the ratios of each, perhaps reducing the amount of higher-cost items to meet a certain price per ounce. What price seems workable to the consumer? Take that price and work backward to figure out what your budget is for each item and the percentage of each to use in the bag. One thing I would challenge new brands to come up with is more creative, sustainable packaging. There’s more opportunity to find innovative, sustainable packing than there is in innovative ingredients right now.
Nick Erker: Yeah. And as people are looking at what blends to put in their packaging, we’ve got a lot of experience helping different customers with that. And Smirks is here to help our customers develop their budgets for a new trail mix. We’re glad to provide price quotes for a variety of items when you’re in the early stages of R and D with your trail mix products or with any item that you’re working on. So as people are looking at the price point and packaging, what else should people be considering when they’re building a trail mix?
Donny Edson: Yeah, I mean, once you’ve figured out that piece of it, this is a really important thing to consider. And that’s thinking about ingredient availability and supply chains. It’s one thing if you’re creating a seasonal mix, but if you’re expecting this item to be an everyday skew, be sure to consider the availability of the items year-round. You should understand the seasonality of the items you are using. Can you access these ingredients most of the year? What sort of planning is needed to ensure you have access to items and a solid backup plan if supply chain issues occur? You’d hate to have one item in the bag holding up the entire mix from staying on the shelf. Consider onboarding additional suppliers. This is something Smirks works with our customers on. Also, think about when and how far out it makes sense to contract for the items in the mix. The more you plan ahead, the more you hopefully avoid the potential of paying more for ingredients on the spot market or running out of ingredients.
Nick Erker: Yeah, that’s a great point. As you’re talking about having multiple suppliers, that’s one thing Smirks we’ve spent a lot of time here with our team discovering multiple suppliers from ingredients from multiple geographical locations to help eliminate that risk for a lot of our customers. And we’re glad to help you understand that in any ingredient that you might be looking at. And a lot of that makes sense, Donny. Post-pandemic many of the importers in our industry, not just Smirks, have returned to a more just-in-time form of inventory control. And we recommend that you review your ingredient needs periodically. To determine if and when you should contract and for how long.
Donny Edson: We’ve talked about cost, and of course, this is important as consumers are looking for value in this era of inflationary food prices. I’m always looking for ways to bring my customers value that they can add to their bottom line to pass on to their retail customers. So, when I’m approached about doing a trail mix project, I’ll suggest not only what items might be a good value, but what grades or sizes they may choose. I love working on these projects, helping our customers design new trail mix or tweak an existing mix. We’re here for it not just to help our customers with warehousing and supplying ingredients at a fair price, but to provide ideas on the innovative side.
Nick Erker: Yeah, our suppliers bring a lot of cool, innovative products to us, which could be a perfect fit for a new project that you might never heard of. And our team members can also come up with other ideas because we have so many foodies here at Smirks. Donny, you’ve been known and have cooked a little bit in your days, and you’ve even cooked some stuff up here in our office. I know those chef and catering skills would come in handy when you joined Smirks years ago.
Donny Edson: Yeah. Catering is all about planning how many ingredients you’ll need and when. That’s why we guide our customers to contract for specific items and time periods. We don’t have crystal balls to know what will happen in the market, but we’re pretty good at predicting patterns we’ve seen in years past. We keep our ears to the ground and try to get a read on what’s happening in the market.
Nick Erker: So that’s it for today’s Get the Scoop with Smirks podcast discussion about trail mixes. Please listen to the next segment as we will feature specific trail mix ingredients that offer good value. As always, please reach out to Smirks if we can help answer any questions about our podcast or specific ingredients.
Trail Mix Ingredients Product Feature
Nick Erker: In today’s Get the Scoop with Smirks podcast product feature. We’re going to talk about a variety of ingredients that are used in trail mixes that Smirks also supplies. Donny is going to share some insights on a selection of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and other ingredients. Donny, take it away.
Donny Edson: Thanks, Nick. All right. There are so many ingredients we’d talk about because the possibilities for trail mixes are almost endless. But I’ll key in on some ingredients that maybe you haven’t considered or thought about for a while because the market price didn’t make sense or crops were too tight. Let’s start with nuts.
The king of nuts, cashews are a more popular addition to a trail mix. They start out with a crunchy texture and end with a more creamy finish. Smirks will have organic sterilized cashew pieces coming in August at a great price. Whole cashews are a good option as well.
Consider using macadamia nuts in your mix macadamias offer an opportunity to select a more premium or high-end ingredient in the eyes of the consumer because prices have dropped considerably. Macadamias are slightly sweet in flavor and very rich and buttery due to their natural fat content and a very good nut to use if you’re focused on keto.
Brazil nuts have a similar texture to macadamia nuts and a slightly buttery flavor. They’re a little more unusual to find in a trail mix. The new Brazil nut crop is proving to offer more availability and better pricing for holes and pieces.
Almonds are a staple in a lot of mixes. While California almond prices are expected to rise, they are still good value over prices from two years ago. They add a great crunch to a mix and can offer a toasty or earthy flavor with subtle hints of fruit and even dark chocolate.
Walnut consumption is trending upward partly because they’re the only nut that is considerably high in omega three. They also have a sweet, mild taste with hints of earthiness that lends itself to mixes that are savory and sweet. Also, if you’re applying seasoning or spice to a walnut, all the crevices in the nut help the seasoning to adhere well. Also, walnuts are one of the best purchases in the nut category and appear to remain stable.
Seeds are a popular item to add to your mix as they add flavor, variety, and texture. Sunflower seeds have stabilized in price since the pandemic, making them once again a reasonably priced addition to a trail mix.
Pumpkin seeds have a slightly nutty flavor. They have a nice crunch and seasonings bind easily to them. If you want to create a certain flavor profile in your mix. Smirks is offering pumpkin seeds from Mexico and China.
On the dried fruit side, the most common fruits used in the mainstream trail mixes have not always been the healthiest fruits. Although they are delicious, it’s important to decide how clean you want the label to be on your product.
Banana chips are fried banana that is cooked in coconut oil. You may consider using a dried banana as just a single ingredient item. In addition to this, some tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and papaya have often been soaked in a sugar syrup before drying, and they may have sulfites added to them. We’re in a really great time when you can switch these fruits out for fruits that are just dried fruits that again are just a single ingredient.
Organic cranberry prices have dropped because the crop was quite plentiful. Another exciting one Smirks has been stocking is organic golden berries. We’ve been stocking them for the last couple of years. We have some in stock and more on the way. If you’re looking for a more unique flavor profile, this is an item to consider. Feel free to reach out and ask for a sample.
Coconut continues to be a trending ingredient, and it’s a great time to consider adding coconut chips or coconut smiles to your mix as well.
Cocoa gems similar to the M&M brand candy are a staple item in many trail mixes, and Smirks now has a supplier offering competitive prices.
Nick Erker: That wraps up our product feature for this week’s episode of Get the Scoop with Smirks podcast.
Smirk’s July 2023 Monthly Market Report
Donny Edson: Here’s our Get the Scoop with Smirks podcast Monthly Market Report for July 2023. As of today, July 12th, while I’m recording this, the almond objective report did come out with an estimated crop of 2.6 billion pounds. This is a little bit higher than the subjective report that came out in May. So, what does that mean for almonds? This means the crop is pretty good and that the weather did not affect it as much as everybody kind of thought it might have in February, March, and April when they had the cold spell in California. So overall, I think the almond market should remain very stable. Everything we’ve seen right now is that some sellers have sold out of some products, especially some of the larger sizes. And people are starting to book new crops, new crops at a small premium right now over where the current crop is. And so more people are leaning towards buying the current crop to take advantage of the pricing. But overall, we don’t anticipate the market to go crazy at all. We expect things to remain very stable.
Chia harvest is upon us, and we can safely say we’ve escaped the time period when there would be a freeze if it was going to happen in South America. And that is excellent news. The crop appears to have really good growing conditions. The weather was great, the crop is good sized. Thus far we’ve heard the quality is really good and the market has softened a lot for new shipments. We’re already seeing new crop shipments starting to hit the water in the last week or so. So, we’ll see new crop chia starting to arrive on the east coast towards the end of August, into the west coast, probably close to October.
Hard to say if there’s any downside on the market. Hard to say if there’s an upside on the market. Last year the market was very stable this time and a lot of people started purchasing chia which drove the demand up a little bit. And then October, more people bought chia and the price never settled down. Don’t know if that’ll happen again this year as people are keeping less inventory on hand because of the cost of warehousing, the cost of financing, but it is something to watch. It is easy right now to start covering your chia needs through 2023 into 2024. Smirks feels very comfortable to be able to offer contracts through June or July of 2024 right now on organic and conventional chia. In addition to that, there does appear to be white chia, which there was very little of last year. So, we’re just starting to see that harvest begin to happen, and we should see some offers coming across. But several suppliers in South America have told us that there is white chia this year, so it should be a little bit easier than it was last year.
Let’s talk a little bit about gluten-free oats from Canada which has been a roller coaster for the last two years. That was an item where the price was very stable for a long time, and then the crop got wiped out last year and the prices doubled. Then this year the prices came back in line as there was a really big crop and the growing conditions were really good. There appears to be a significant carryover on the crop as we go into harvest time in the next few weeks in Canada. So, there’s been some really good pricing coming out on oats. Although the new crop, they do say is much smaller than the last crop, I think the carryover is big enough that it is a great time to get your coverage on oats. Take advantage of the prices that people are putting out with the carryover as they try to clean up inventory. Try to book yourself out as far as you can, and I think you’ll really take advantage of the great prices that we’re seeing right now.
Coconut sugar in Indonesia has been a little bit of a problem for us for the last couple of months. It started when the country shut down for Ramadan in April, and it’s usually a three-week period, three to four-week period. And after they shut down and they come out, usually production fires right back up and containers start shipping. However, this year, because of El Niño, it has been raining and raining and raining, not necessarily over the whole island of Java, where the sugar comes from, but certainly in the more mountainous regions up by Purwokerto. And that rain has stressed the trees to the point where the sap is not turning into sugar. There is just not near as much supply for sugar, and there’s a lot of demand right now for it. We’re seeing delays anywhere from four to six weeks on orders from when they were supposed to ship to when they actually are shipping. We anticipate coconut sugar remaining pretty tight inside the United States for spot purchases at least through September right now. If you are going to use coconut sugar, it’s a really good idea to communicate with us or your existing suppliers. Try to get yourself covered through the end of the year so that they have a plan and they can start allocating sugar for you.
One other item we’re watching right now is quinoa in South America, Peru. Again, El Niño. The crop in Peru is not really good and there’s not very much organic product. A lot of products are tested for pesticides there. So, Peru’s almost removed themselves from being as competitive as Bolivia, and I think Bolivia is paying close attention to that. And we’re starting to see prices tick up in Bolivia from where they were a little bit ago. This isn’t like when the quinoa situation happened several years ago when the price doubled. I think mostly because there’s not as much demand from consumers for quinoa as there used to be, but it’s still something you should keep an eye on. If you do use quinoa or that’s an ingredient you need, I would highly recommend getting your coverage for as far out as you can on quinoa and getting your price locked up because there are upsides coming from every direction on that ingredient.
The last item I want to talk about is sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds have been very quiet both domestically and internationally. We went from a year ago or a year and a half ago when the Ukraine situation happened. At one point Bulgaria had an export ban where they stopped exporting sunflowers. Now a year later, Bulgaria has an import ban on sunflowers being imported into Bulgaria. So, it changed that quickly. The import ban is in place so that Bulgarian farmers can sell their sunflower seeds to Bulgarian processors to process rather than bringing in lower-priced products from other areas around there. Also, the demand side on sunflower seeds has been pretty quiet. I think a lot of people overbooked or panic-bought when the situation started in Ukraine and they’re working through those long contracts right now at high prices. So, there’s just not a lot of movement in the sunflower market. One thing I do want to mention is that the US does have a great supply of sunflowers right now and a big crop coming through as well, as long as they can get through this time when it’s a little bit wet in the growing regions right now. And so we got to watch for insects and diseases inside of the sunflowers. But they do have availability and a lot of the packers have lowered their prices down to be competitive with Bulgaria. And I just think it’s important to know that if you do use sunflower seeds, you should always check in your own backyard first to see what these guys can offer or what we can offer you from some of the domestic people here in the United States because they could use a little bit of help right now in moving some of their sunflower seeds. And I think that we can all kick in and help out a little bit with that.
That’s our market report for July 2023. If we can answer any questions or help with ingredients, please reach out to Smirks by email at whatsnew@smirks.com or visit our website at smirks.com. Thank you for listening.
Nick Erker: So that’s it for this episode of Get the Scoop with Smirks podcast, where we bring you the latest market reports, insights into bulk ingredients, and their origins, as well as in-depth product information. So, if you have any questions, or feedback, or just want a sample to taste for yourself, visit the smirks.com website or email us at whatsnew@smirks.com. Never miss a future episode. Be sure to hit the subscribe button wherever you listen to your podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in.