RESEARCH FINDINGS


 Findings from executive interviews with members of retail and

 wholesale firms are presented under six separate headings. These

 headings are as follows: sources of celery purchased, by season,

 from different growing areas and supplier types; transportation

 factors affecting celery marketing; container preferences and evalu-

 ations; characteristics of celery and quality of pack from different

 growing areas; packaging methods and preferences; and retailing and

 merchandising practices employed.


 Sources of Celery

 Growing Area and Season


 Florida celery dominates the celery market in each of the three
market areas during most of the Florida season. Both wholesale and

retail personnel stated that they switch to Florida celery in the fall

or winter when they consider quality satisfactory. The Florida share

of total celery purchased by all firms included in the study increases

from about 14 percent in November to 41 percent in December. After

January 1, even more firms shift a larger proportion of purchases to

Florida celery and hold that volume through May (Figure 1). Of the

total weekly celery volume purchased directly from shippers (about