The South African fruit industry has launched a major campaign to support sales of stonefruit, top fruit and grapes in the UK.
The three-way venture between the organisations representing South African deciduous fruit and grapes and the country’s government aims to build on the success of a pilot campaign to promote plums, which took place in the first three months of this year. The campaign saw the category grow by 10.3 per cent in value and 47.2 per cent in volume.
The initiative, tag-lined Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit and funded in part by the South African government, looks to tie in an element of tourism to the sale of fruit - attracting consumers with the idea of an exotic holiday destination, as well as the product itself.
The campaign also uses the government’s South Africa - Alive with Possibility logo. There will be a range of activities in stores, including tastings and point-of-sale advertising, as well as competitions to win a holiday to South Africa and tickets to the 2010 football World Cup finals.
This will be supported by advertising and PR activity, including celebrity endorsement by Channel 4 chef Sophie Michell and A Place in the Sun’s Jasmine Harman, as well as radio and internet video features.
The programme will begin with grapes in November, which will later be joined by peaches, nectarines, top fruit and plums, and will continue until the apple season ends in October 2010.
Stefan Conradie, product manager for the South African stonefruit and top-fruit industry, told freshinfo: “While it is always difficult to measure the impact of these things, we felt the plum campaign was excellent and will go some way to increasing shelf space through a rise in sales. We will use that as a model for this second phase and hope to continue to raise the profile of fresh produce from South Africa.
“Our main objective is to educate consumers - the more they know about the product, the more they are likely to continue to buy it and choose it in a competitive market.”
Elaine Alexander, executive director of the South African Table Grape Industry, said: “Promoting South African grapes alongside stonefruit and top fruit from the country gives South Africa a consistent promotional message for almost 12 months of the year, which is great news for our growers and their retail customers in the UK.”
