The berry category continues to far outpace all other fruit categories in terms of dollar sales and gains at U.S. retail, according to IRI data.

Berry sales in March this year grew by 9.9 percent year-on-year, adding on an additional $64 million dollars, according to the data published in a monthly report by 210 Analytics. This brought total sales to $714 million.

By comparison, the apple category grew by 8.6 percent to $356 million, avocados increased by 14.4 percent to $221 million, and grapes rose by 6.1 percent to $273 million.

“The top 10 in absolute dollar gains shows the overwhelming strength of berries in today’s marketplace,” said Jonna Parker, Team Lead Fresh for IRI.

“Not only are they the biggest seller across all fruits and vegetables, but they are also the biggest contributor to new dollars. In most other cases, growth is reflecting the impact of inflation.

"For instance, the average price per pound for limes was up 51.5% in March 2022 versus March 2021 and the price of avocados rose 35.7% on a per pound basis.”

The berry category, meanwhile, where the only top-10 produce segment by sales to not see an increase in price per pound, with the value dropping by 0.7 percent in March.

Aside from grapes, all other top-10 categories experienced a double-digit rise in price per pound when comparing the data year-on-year. Apples prices per pound were up 14.2 percent, avocados 35.7 percent, and lettuce 13.4 percent.