The marketing campaign for South African avocados in the UK has enjoyed further success in 2011, despite a year-on-year drop in exported volumes through the season.
Figures from the South African Avocado Growers' Association showed that some 6.8m 4kg cartons of South African avocados were exported from the end of April to the middle of October, well down on 11.9m cartons last year as a result of widespread hail and an off year in the fruit's cyclical production.
Of the produce exported, around 20 per cent was sent to the UK, made up of greenskin varieties (37 per cent) and Hass (63 per cent).
Despite these lower volumes, promotional activity continued under the theme 'Take a Dip with Summer Avocados, including a media relations campaign and in-store marketing activity.
The 2011 promotion developed the idea of dipping and sharing into a summer lifestyle campaign, offering recipes and tips in a booklet that was produced as part of the activity, while the campaign website was also updated.
Some 17,000 requests were made for the booklet to be made into a hard copy, resulting in it being made downloadable online, while further retailer activity saw in-store sampling in 200 Asda stores at the end of August as well as on-pack labels and coupon labels in Sainsbury's and M&S respectively.
'This is our 16th consecutive year working with SAAGA, and one of the best yet, with exceptionally strong demand for our recipe booklet and a real boost online via both our website and our Facebook page,' said Rob Metcalfe, managing director of PR and marketing agency Richmond Towers Communications, which organises the campaign. 'We are now very excited about the prospects for the 2012 campaign, following some detailed UK shopper research carried out during the summer.'
Derek Donkin, chief executive of SAAGA, said that fruit quality had been high this campaign.
'Despite the difficult weather conditions that the industry endured, it has been a strong season in terms of quality,' he noted. 'Growers, packers and exporters were diligent in applying best practice in order to deliver quality fruit.
'Our campaign in the UK has achieved solid cut-through and we are delighted with the results to date. We look forward to putting together the 2012 plans soon,' Donkin added.
