After a season of reduced supplies, the California Avocado Commission is looking forward to promoting a much larger crop in 2020 and will be delivering that message at the upcoming Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit, which will be held in the commission’s backyard this year, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, from Oct. 16-19.
“We finished up our crop meetings last week,” said CAC Vice President of Marketing Jan DeLyser on Sept. 19. “The prospects are that we will have a crop of 350-400 million pounds.”
She added that California avocado growers are closing in on the end of the 2019 season with 204 million pounds sent to market by mid-September. There is very little production left but DeLyser said there were some growers with fruit in the most northern growing district in the state, which will allow the commission to serve fresh California avocados at its booth during the PMA convention in mid-October.
Speaking of the 2019 season, she said that despite the reduced supplies, total volume is going to eclipse the pre-season estimate by about 20 percent. It’s always difficult to estimate a crop before it is finished growing and packed, which is why DeLyser’s estimate for 2020 encompasses a broad range.
Barring unforeseen weather calamities, the volume shipped will be much greater than 2019 and will allow the commission to cast a wider marketing net. While the majority of the fruit will probably be sold in California, as it was this year, DeLyser said it is less about geography and more about the preference of retailers. She said there are retailers all over the country that do prefer to sell California avocados when they are available and that is the commission’s target market. California has positioned itself as the producer of the “premium” avocado and has received a premium price for its fruit over the last several years.
Even if the California crop approaches 400 million pounds that will still be less than 15 percent of the 3 billion pounds of avocados that are projected to be consumed in the United States next year. DeLyser said the CAC marketing team is working on programs that build shopper anticipation for seasonal availability of fresh California avocados next year. The marketing line-up will include innovative advertising and customer-specific programs. As it has in prior years, health and wellness communications will be integrated into the commission’s plans.
She noted that even with the smaller crop in 2019, CAC was able to launch some innovative promotions and further experiment with geo-marketing. The commission ran a promotion on Waze, the traffic avoidance app, in which it directed users to stores selling avocados while they were driving in those specific neighborhoods.
DeLyser said the promotion was very successful, gauging success by the delivery of the message and the engagement of users. “We tested it in Southern California and received an immediate positive response from users and from retailers. We are currently in planning mode for 2020 but we are definitely looking at this option again.”
CAC has significantly increased its use of digital marketing over the years, which DeLyser said is the biggest change in produce marketing in recent memory. She said the retail industry is increasingly engaged in the idea. Many retailers, she said, now have staff members specializing in social media marketing and well versed in the concept. For marketers, such as the California Avocado Commission, the use of digital marketing is more economically efficient and allows for more specific targeting of customers.
With Fresh Summit in California, CAC expects to have a larger presence at the show and in its booth with both an increase in staff participation as well as attendance by more California avocado growers.
“CAC is proud to be a sponsor of the Produce for Better Health Foundation Education 2Action Retail Dietitian Summit and welcome those influential retail dietitians, as well as produce retailers and industry stakeholders to booth No. 3937,” said DeLyser. “We’ll have a double-decker booth again this year, which provides nice spaces for private meetings as well as casual conversations.”
CAC’s merchandising and marketing team will be available at the booth during expo hours, including DeLyser, David Anderson, Carolyn Becker, Zac Benedict, David Cruz, Angela Fraser, Marji Morrow and Steven Muro. The latest category data will be available for retailers and other stakeholders.
