The American Artisans program has doubled since its initial launch, United Natural Foods has announced the expansion of additional specialty cheese programs, including the European Artisan Program, French Air Program and new Midwest Select Program. The recent extensions align with UNFI’s mission to elevate artisanal cheese producers while offering customers high-quality, fresh specialty offerings.
UNFI will be launching the Midwest Select Program for the Central region, highlighting unique cheeses and artisan producers local to the Midwest.
The American Artisan Program, which was launched in 2020 to give customers access to unique craft cheeses from across the country, has added another producer with Firefly Farms in Maryland and will continue to add additional producers throughout 2023. UNFI has also expanded its European Artisan Program and French Air Program, which involves flying unique, delicate short shelf-life products from French producers to the U.S for UNFI customers. UNFI will be expanding all three programs to now cover three distribution centers and reach six states.
Adding additional value to customers and vendors, UNFI is creating in-store marketing tools for retailers involved in the artisan programs, including sign packages and QR codes that link to the cheesemakers’ stories.
