The English apple and pear industry will kick off its 2006-07 season with another radio campaign.

Co-ordinated by English Apples & Pears, the same advert that graced the airwaves of Classic FM last season will this year be targeted at audiences of Birmingham, Manchester and London stations.

The ads feature a variety of regional accents, to reach out to the whole nation and will kick off at the beginning of October, for a two-week run timed to coincide with the arrival of large volumes of high-quality fruit in stores in the regions.

“It’s not that we were dissatisfied with Classic FM, merely that we feel it will be useful to try and engage a slightly different audience this season,” said EA&P ceo Adrian Barlow this week. “We have decided to run the ad a little later, as we need to be sure that English apples - which are at most three to four days behind schedule - are in store and eating well when listeners respond to the advert.”

The radio campaign will be followed by eight, half-page adverts in the November editions of consumer magazines, which will hit the shelves in mid-October. And the industry’s season launch will be given a dramatic touch at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on September 26.

“Everything is geared towards getting a consistent message out there, which resonates throughout the season and ensures consumers keep coming back to buy more English apples,” said Barlow.

“We will be using the food-miles and local-sourcing messages to our advantage and emphasising within the industry the need to ensure that the quality of the top-fruit marketed is maintained across the season.”

To that end, EA&P’s promotional committee has also issued new guidelines on Egremont Russett, after large volumes of poor-quality product found its way onto supermarket shelves last season, at extremely low prices, jeopardising the image of the product.

Barlow said: “Egremont Russett is a connoisseur’s apple, but on occasions last year it was marketed as an English dessert apple and its outstanding characteristics were not there. It is in everyone’s interest that this does not happen again.”

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