In this month’s profile on the Produce Marketing Association, the US trade association for fruit and vegetables, the PMA details how it aims to add value to its membership by increasing its consumer outreach with focused campaigns throughout 2005.

As part of its goal to increase fresh produce consumption, the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) has conducted consumer surveys throughout 2004 to find out what shoppers are thinking about fresh fruits and vegetables.

Some of the topics addressed in original PMA research included the importance of taste in produce purchasing decisions; how produce influences diners’ restaurant selection; seasonality’s affect on purchases; and packaging preferences.

Building on these findings, PMA is planning to expand its consumer-focused campaigns in the coming year through alliances and partnerships with other organisations that share common goals with the association.

One of the primary ways PMA will sustain its consumer outreach programs is through strengthened working relationships with the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBHF) and the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE).

In addition to continuing its substantial funding for both organisations, PMA will also provide them with more content for their websites. The association took its own consumer web site, aboutproduce.com, offline on December 31, 2004 in a move aimed at reducing duplication and focusing more consumer attention on the sites of the PBHF and PFSE.

PMA will now share components of its old site with the PBHF for its site, as well as transfer some content to the PFSE for use in its consumer education initiatives. PMA will also be using information from aboutproduce.com to deliver member value through its pma.com site.

“Also, the PBHF has a great web presence in its 5aday.com site,” explained PMA president Bryan Silbermann. “This site is supported by many organisations throughout the public and private sectors.”

“When aboutproduce.com was developed, it served as a supporting resource to the 5 A Day message and acted as a produce encyclopedia for the public.

“The site was very successful and met consumers’ needs for nutrition information, recipes, and selection tips. Now, with the natural progression of fruit and vegetable marketers’ own websites and the amount of valuable information they contain, we realised that maintaining a separate site was a duplication not only of what 5 A Day is doing but also of our members’ own efforts,” he added.

Through ongoing support of the PFSE, PMA plans to ensure that consumers know how to properly handle fruits and vegetables at home.

During PMA’s Fresh Summit 2004 in Anaheim, California, the Partnership and PMA released new science-based, safe-handling produce messages for consumers.

This marked the first time that government, industry, and consumer groups have come together to deliver a joint series of messages aimed at improving how fresh produce is handled by consumers.

“PMA is dedicated to serving the entire supply chain. That includes consumers,” Silbermann said. “Having consistent, credible messages about safe produce handling is essential to maintaining the public’s confidence in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply. We’re pleased to be in a position to provide our members with resources that will convey these messages in their communities.”

These resources, available on www.fightbac.org, include brochures and flyers, draft news releases, powerpoint presentations, and idea generator lists.

Consumer research conducted by the partnership revealed knowledge gaps between what consumers know about safe produce handling and what they practice.

While 74 per cent of consumers know to separate produce from meats when shopping, only 53 per cent always do.

Fifty-one per cent know to wash their hands before and after handling produce, yet only 36 per cent always do. Forty-nine per cent know to scrub firm produce items with a brush, while only 26 per cent always do.