Fresh Times – Edition 6, 2019
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Editor’s Note: The end of a decade
In this December issue, the last for 2019 and the decade, we delve into the world of seasonal and modern fruit and vegetable promotion. This month we’re taking a look at Christmas promotions that will get children excited about fresh produce amid the season’s festivities. We’ll also see how EU financing is helping European producers promote their high quality products to third countries, communication material on preventing the spread of the Asian Stink bug and the latest apps on increasing vegetable consumption for children and adults alike. Have a read to find out more and stay tuned for Fresh Times editions in the next decade, the first to come in February 2020!
France: Blue Reine
This Christmas children across France will be able to take apples home from the supermarket with the Christmas Disney spirit of Frozen (Reine des Neiges). To encourage children and their parents to eat a balanced diet Blue Whale has partnered with Disney to provide sachets of apples with Frozen branded trays. With Christmas instore branding Frozen-style, each sachet will also include a magnet of one of the Frozen characters. Blue Whale hopes that the partnership will increase visibility for apples, which are currently in season, and help to increase fruit and vegetable amongst French children.
UK: Carrots for Rudolph
Morrisons is helping the carrot Christmas tradition this year by offering 125,000 free paper bags of ‘magic’ carrots to shoppers in the week before Christmas starting on Saturday 21 December. Each bag is marked ‘for Rudolph’, however the carrots are from Morrison’s wonky veg range – not as beautiful but just as delicious and nutritious as other carrots on offer. The campaign has been designed to help British carrot farmers who harvested more wonky carrots than usual this autumn due to the heavy rainfall. Morrison’s hopes the campaign will help continue the carrot Christmas tradition and raise awareness of the qualities of wonky vegetables.
Italy: Mountain sounds
Marlene apples are grown in the mountainous region of South Tyrol, but not everyone gets to experience this magical alpine apple-growing environment. Whether you live in another part of the country or further afield Marlene’s new Soundsite is now providing an at-home mountain experience with sounds and impressions from the South Tyrol mountain region. The Soundsite has a collection of immersive experiences from different times of the day and during various meteorological conditions so that you can experience these perfect apple-growing conditions. The sounds will also be disseminated through Spotify, YouTube and Marlene social media.
Poland: Europe in Dubai
The World of Perishables Dubai took place on 12-14 November 2019. Here the Representation of the Association of Polish Fruit and Vegetable Distributors Unia Owocowa and the Union of Polish Fruit Growers had a stand in the exhibition halls. Their stand, financed by the European Union under the European Commission’s agri-promotion programme, displayed their promotional campaign on the quality of apples from Europe ‘Strength of taste, vitamins and colours’. Experts from Poland participated in many business meetings with fruit and vegetable importers to the United Arab Emirates market on the high quality of European apples and business relations.
Italy: Fresh up your life!
CSO Italy, the Italian fruit and vegetable consortium, has embarked on a new project ‘Fresh Up Your Life – European top-quality fruit & veg’. Funded by the European Union under the European Commission’s agri-promotion programme, the programme specifically aims to raise awareness and appreciation of fruit and vegetables from Italy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE already imports Italian peaches, plums, grapes, kiwis and apples and over three years the ‘Fresh Up Your Life’ campaign will expand the UAE’s palette for Italian fresh produce. The programme includes presence at major shows including the World of Perishables Dubai and Dubai Italian Week.
Spain: Persimmon campaign
Persimmons, also known as kakis, are still relatively unknown in Spain despite their long standing production in the country. With a large volume of persimmons produced in Spain this year compared to previous years, Anecoop launched a new persimmon campaign in November to raise awareness of the fruit with a focus on social media communication. Eye-catching and modern videos on YouTube have been selected to demonstrate the qualities of persimmons with the help of renowned comedian Luis Piedrahita and chef Juan Pozuelo. As part of the campaign a ‘kakipedia’ and persimmon recipes created by Juan Pozuelo himself will also be disseminated.
Belgium: Apples for Cliniclowns
For the third year in a row BelOrta has joined forces with Cliniclowns to bring a smile to children’s faces throughout Belgium. Under the slogan ‘Let’s smile together’ for every Migo pear sold in November this year, part of the proceeds were donated to Cliniclowns. In this way BelOrta Migo pears have contributed to an extra smile in hospitals throughout Belgium, which celebrate ‘Happy Month’ in November. As the friendly pear, the Migo was the perfect match! To raise awareness of the cause, a special sticker was placed on every Migo pear to alert consumers that part of the proceeds would be donated to Cliniclowns.
Italy: Stink bug video
This year the Italian Emilia Romagna region posted an educational video on the Asian stink bug (also known as the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug or Halyomorpha halys,) on their website. The Asian stink bug has rapidly spread across central and southern Europe. While it is harmless to humans it has significantly affected fruit and vegetable production in Italy and France with up to 70% in harvest losses in some orchards. The aim of the video is to inform those who come across the Asian stink bug about what to do and what not do to counter the further spread of the insect as limited tools are available and effective.
France: Improve a dish you love
Public Health France is encouraging the French to change their eating habits without giving up the pleasure of eating in a new campaign to increase the uptake of healthy balanced diets. The new campaign is centred around the philosophy of eating better by first improving the meals that you already like without totally changing the food you eat and having to replace your favourite meals. The campaign provides recipe ideas and tips on how to easily improve your diet. Short videos are also available that answer questions, such as ‘Why do I hate vegetables’, and importantly also give practical solutions.
UK: New veg app
UK families are testing out the latest app to encourage young children to eat more vegetables. The interactive app designed by doctors at the University of Reading is aimed at preschool-aged children to show them that eating vegetables isn’t that bad after all. The app uses pictures of vegetables to familiarize children with the products showing them the whole farm to fork journey. From learning where they’re from, to how they’re grown and how to prepare them, the app increases children’s familiarity with vegetables. The science behind this technique is that the more familiar children are with vegetables, the more likely they are to eat them.
Australia: VegEze app
The vegetable app VegEze is taking Australia by storm. Encouraging users to eat 3 different vegetables at dinner for 21 days, the app is aimed at breaking entrenched dietary habits in adults to help them meet fruit and vegetable consumption guideline targets. VegEze uses behaviour-changing strategies including self-monitoring and social comparison to eat 3 different vegetables at dinner. Users can track their vegetable intake, have daily reminders and rewards and get access to resources like vegetable-rich recipes and meal ideas to help them keep motivated. VegEze was created by CSIRO researchers in collaboration with SP Health and Hort Innovation.