A 50/50 joint campaign between the South African (SA) government and the country’s plum sector is set to launch in the UK and Germany this month, as part of a bid to promote both the fruit and the South African tourism industry.
The promotion will target consumers with a range of in-store activities such as tastings, recipes, leaflets and advetorials at leading retailers Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco. This will be supplemented by public relations activities fronted by Jasmine Harman from British television travel programme A Place in the Sun.
While the principal aim of the campaign is to bring South African plums to the forefront of consumers' attention, it could also lay the foundations for future promotions of the country and its fresh produce.
'We see the plum campaign as a catalyst for the future, not just as a single promotion,' Stefan Conradie, product manager for the South African stonefruit industry, told Fruitnet.com. 'Fruit can be a messenger, a vehicle for delivering a story about the product, the growing region and the country of origin.'
Using the 'South Africa: Alive with possibility' brand on produce and promotional material as well as iconic images such as Table Mountain, the plum campaign goes under the banner 'Beautiful country, beautiful fruit'.
Raising awareness of the product is key to helping make South African plums a preferred choice of consumers, Mr Conradie added, with the campaign aiming to inform about the plum industry and enhance consumers' perceptions of the country.
'Country of origin can be important to consumers, they will have certain perceptions for different areas and countries. We need to give information to these people about South Africa on subjects such as ethical trading and the expertise that our growers have,' he said.
And if the promotion is a success, there could be further, similar campaign rollouts involving other South African produce categories such as topfruit, stonefruit and citrus. 'Ideally we could get to the point where we have 11 or 12 products under a similar banner,' Mr Conradie added.
The promotion will be backed by a high-quality plum crop in South Africa, with overall production volumes set to be slightly higher than average this season. A December forecast pegged the crop at 8.4m 5.25kg cartons.
