There can be no doubt of the importance of consumer communication when it comes to horticulture, although messages may take time to sink in.
I have been reminded of this recently watching several unrelated television documentaries that all gave a very fair appraisal of what made the featured industries tick.
Examples included the mysteries of rhubarb growing in the Wakefield triangle including harvesting by the light of a candle, and the more open-air pursuits of growing Jersey Royal potatoes and sloshing about in watercress beds.
The only downside is that presenters still seem to have a fixation that the British cannot grow a tasty tomato. The Dutch were castigated by the German press over the same issue in the 1970s, so it just goes to show that media coverage can still be a double-edged sword.
Meanwhile, in terms of getting the message across one can only speculate at this stage on the progress that the Fresh Produce Consortium will make when it gathers the industry together on September 28 at the Institute of Directors. At that meeting our trade body will decide what action it can take against a background where consumption still seems to be static despite the millions of pounds pumped in by government for 5 A DAY.
In comparative terms, whatever it comes up with will be small beer, although I am the first to accept, based on personal experience of reporting campaigns for more than 40 years, that success is never assured by the size of any budget.
One important aspect must be to devise a system where both the message and the funding are accepted as benefiting everyone.
The FPC could take the view that government has in effect run a pump-priming exercise, that it could weld the industry together to take it on in a more practical way, with each sector committed to its own course of action.
This would at least appeal to a spectrum as diverse as the multiple trade, multi-faceted marketing organisations, the various UK crop associations and the National Farmers’ Union.
There is then the question of how much?
Compared with the days of the Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Information Bureau and the FPC’s own short-lived Get Fresh and Colours of Life campaigns I estimate there is probably far less cash floating around. This is down to the constant drive of the multiples to reduce costs - which in itself often means added investment - and the need for the trade to support its retail customers’ own promotional activities.
Certainly any new initiative from the fresh produce industry unveiled next month will need its own brand of communication to get the message across.
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