The fresh produce industry has failed to support fully the proposed generic promotion campaign Eat in Colour, despite the weight of Tesco and Asda’s backing.
However, the brains behind the scheme, the Fresh Produce Consortium, said it had still received significant funding, albeit not on the scale it had hoped, and was confident the campaign could push successfully ahead.
The trade body will now hold a meeting with stakeholders and sponsors of the scheme in early February when it decide whether or not to proceed on this basis. Initial plans will have to be modified to reflect the reduction in funding, it said.
Dick Brighten, past president of the FPC, said: “We believe we have the necessary funding to have a cracking campaign, although it’s not to the magnitude of what we were expecting.” The FPC was calling on the industry to raise £500,000 a year for a three-year project, with companies, depending on size, being asked to chip in anywhere from £250 to £25,000.
Unfortunately, the campaign suffered a major set back after the FPC chief executive, Nigel Jenney, suffered a bout of serious illness over the Christmas period. Brighten said that Jenney was now well on the road to recovery and the FPC’s council had stepped into the breach to maintain operations and keep stakeholders informed on its various activities, including Eat in Colour.
He said: “We originally set a deadline for October for people to pledge support, but potential sponsors needed more time to consult with their boards so we had to extend our time expectations. Unfortunately, that brought us into the Christmas period, when our chief executive became ill.”
The FPC suffered a further management set-back, earlier on in December, when its president, Alan McCutchion, stepped down due to personal reasons. He has been replaced in an acting capacity by vice-president Michael Valesco.
The Eat in Colour campaign was initially proposed to the industry in September last year and is intended to embrace existing schemes, such as 5 A DAY, while drawing on the colourful appeal of fruit and vegetables to promote consumption.
At the time, Jenney said that if the campaign helped grow consumption to five a day, then it could increase the market in volume by around 20 per cent and in value by more than £1 billlion.
Initial early support came from Asda, which pledged the full £25,000 a year for the three-year life of the campaign, and was quickly followed by Tesco, which matched the Wal-Mart owned retailer’s offer.
Brighten remained confident, however, that further sponsorship was still to be found “There’s still money coming through."
