Marketing Fresh Produce – Whose Job Is It?
There’s a book with that title that I’ve been thinking about writing for years. I guess that will be put in my retirement bucket-list of projects now as I prepare to turn the page to that new chapter. For now, though, maybe a ‘Cliff’s Notes’ version is what I need to share. I hope, if you’ve followed my writing over the years, you’ve surmised that my definition of marketing is everything you do to have a successful business. From the farmer deciding what seeds to buy based on what customers have been asking for; to the broker/buyer/shipper working a trade-show floor to find out if there’s enough interest and secure commitments to increase their planned purchases during the season; to retail fresh produce managers lining up supplies to offer a sale, all are marketing.
However, in batting this idea around years ago, my retired colleague, Jack Rabin, and I discussed the crux of the marketing problem. Just as agricultural production systems were described in my college ag management classes as a series of substitutions, so are food choices by consumers. The plate is only so big.
As Jack stated, “A person can only consume so many calories.”
You can’t make the plate bigger. So, you need to give more of the plate to vegetables.
Calls for More Vegetables
A recent social media post (Leah McGrath, a Registered Dietitian who writes on the science in nutrition, LinkedIn, 11/7/2024) asked if the USDA ‘MyPlate’ recommendations could be ‘plant-based.’
Absolutely! Assuming people actually follow this guide, fruits and vegetables already cover half the plate, and another quarter is grains. It wouldn’t be that hard to add some more grains and complementary pulses/legumes for the protein, and some plant-derived liquid for the dairy.
There it is. Entirely plant-based, but does that increase the number of fruits and vegetables on the plate?
If more people just followed the MyPlate recommendations, that is, really putting enough produce to cover half of their plates, demand and consumption would increase.
So, who is supposed to make that happen?
Who Steps Up?
Industry participants, from growers to wholesalers, concentrate on increasing sales of their own products to the next link in the farm-to-table chain. While retail grocers focus on the end consumer, they use produce as a tool to attract customers to be able to sell all the products the store offers.
Steven Bradley, President of Cox Farms, now the largest controlled environment agriculture producer in the country, hosted an event for their business partners, customers and friends at the 2024 International Fresh Produce Association’s (IFPA) ‘Global Produce and Floral Show’ in Atlanta.
The headline that caught my eye on the company press release was, “The impact we can have on fresh produce consumption is very exciting.” Bradley implied that if produce tastes better, people will eat more of it, and the greenhouse technologies at Cox Farms “… create conditions … that make plants … thrive” so they can “…grow highly flavorful products.”
Is that increasing the slice of the plate for fresh produce, or increasing sales of Cox Farms’ products?
If individuals are marketing their own products, maybe it falls on industry associations, trade groups, or government agencies to ‘educate’ consumers on the benefits of putting more produce on their plates. The latter gets a lot of push back, especially if they have to balance promotion of one segment of agriculture against others. Likewise, groups like IFPA hits resistance when it comes to who’s going to pay, and which produce commodity gets more benefit from generic promotions, but they try.
Recently, IFPA announced a collaboration with the Foundation for Fresh Produce (FFP) to work with pediatricians with posters on ‘How to Talk About Fruits and Vegetables.’. The FFP has a program called ‘Kids Eat in Colors’ that “provides evidence-based strategies and information on child nutrition and feeding.”
Whether a grower, wholesaler, retailer, if you are interested in trying to increase the consumption of fresh produce, a flyer or poster, or a note on your produce boxes about these types of programs would be an easy way to get started. If you get them young, that may eventually translate to a bigger piece of the plate.
That’s everyone’s job!
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on GrowingProduce.com, our sister brand.