Produce Buyer Quality Requirements to Form an Eastern Broccoli Industry

We used an online survey to examine the broccoli quality requirements of East Coast wholesale and retail buyers. Buyers exhibit strong preferences for broccoli attributes such as dark green color, small bead size, and uniform heads. Buyers demand the same high quality standards for both locally grown and West Coast–grown broccoli. Natural food resellers are more open to different product conditions in local broccoli. They could be the most approachable buyers for broccoli grown in the East Coast. These results could serve as the basis for future research regarding produce buyers’ preferences for locally grown produce.