The Revolution Starts Now

Increasing consumption requires a whole new way of thinking.

According to Progressive Grocer’s 2013 Produce Operations Review, when it came to problems facing produce departments, retailers ranked “How to Increase Consumption” above “Transportation Costs,” “Labor/Recruitment Costs” and “Outbreaks/Recalls.”

Wow, even above outbreaks.

One of the main reasons I joined Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) team is because of the clear vision the organization has to increase produce consumption around the world. If you haven’t already heard the news, PMA recently forged a unique and powerful partnership with Sesame Workshop to increase children’s consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Under the two-year agreement, industry members will receive access to licensed “Sesame Street” characters, royalty-free. A small task force of PMA members is working with PMA staff and “Sesame Street” over the next few months to develop the licensing agreement and a toolkit for industry guidance, so stay tuned.

This kind of strategic partnership provides the industry’s marketers with a tremendous opportunity to boost fresh produce consumption. What’s more, this agreement marks a new era of enhanced PMA value and exemplifies how our new strategic plan focuses more resources directly on driving produce consumption.

At Fresh Summit, we shared the goal of inspiring “The Fresh Food Revolution,” which aims to change the way people engage with fruits and vegetables. That revolution is critical to increasing consumption and is woven through each point of our strategic plan:

Connecting to consumers: The revolution starts with making consumer connections happen through information about customer trends and insights from global markets, cultures and segments of the value chain. That information is the key to helping us better understand consumers and market to them in more meaningful ways.

Leveraging science and technology: Advances in science and technology are not only helping us run our businesses more effectively, but also are helping us boost consumer confidence and increase produce consumption in the process. In addition to continuous improvement with food safety, we’re also seeing progress on supply chain efficiencies, processing and packing innovations, data management methodologies, and seed technology. All of this enables us to safely and efficiently deliver what consumers want, when and how they want it.

Attracting new talent: We’ll need creative, smart people who are ready to innovate produce marketing in ways necessary to stir passion and build consumer demand. These people must have the skills and experience to help us optimize consumer insights and trends while putting emerging science and technology to work.

Finding solutions to issues: Each one of us is a member of a global community that connects us with the experts, the leaders, and the forum to facilitate discussions about ways to generate momentous appeal for fruits and vegetables. Our community has the strength to influence issues affecting our industry and our businesses to innovate our approach to marketing.

PMA looks forward to partnering with you to ignite The Fresh Food Revolution. Yes, there are as many variables behind increasing demand and overcoming barriers to consumption as there are fruits and vegetables in the produce department. I strongly believe, however, that there are equally as many opportunities from all angles of our businesses to truly change the way people engage with fruits and vegetables. We believe that with the right focus, the right people and the right connections, The Fresh Food Revolution will help solve the problem facing produce departments — and the entire supply chain — of how to increase consumption.

Our community has the strength to influence issues affecting our industry and our businesses to innovate our approach to marketing.