Cantaloupe market look in

Fresh deals

Another week of food ads is upon us in suburban Kansas City, with asparagus the leading feature at Price Chopper at $1.88 per pound and at HyVee at $1.99 per pound. Jumbo red scarlotta grapes from SunWorld won top billing in the Hen House food ad at $1.48 per pound, while Dillons featured Kroger Russet potatoes at a two for one deal on 5-pound bags.

Prices for these items are valid from Oct. 30 to Nov. 6.

Dillons (Oct. 30 to Nov. 6)
Kroger Russet potatoes 5-pound bag, buy one get one free
Asparagus $2.99/lb
Fresh green cabbage 2 lbs for 88 cents
Colorado Columbia Basin sweet onions 79 cents/lb
New crop red or golden delicious or gala apples or pears - All varieties $1.49/lb
Black seedless grapes: $1.99 per pound
Wonderful pomegranates: 2 for $4
Private Selection Organic Salads: 2 for $6
Fresh Express Salads: 2 for $4 when you buy 2
Fresh Baby Bella mushrooms: whole or sliced : 2 for $5 for 10 ounce resealable bags


HyVee (Oct. 30 to Nov. 29)
Fresh asparagus: $1.99/lb
Dole cauliflower: $1.48
Driscoll's raspberries: 2 six ounce packages for $5
Texas Rio Star grapefruit: 2 for $1
Monterey whole mushrooms: $1.18/8 ounce package
Sweet red peppers 3 for $2
Dole salad blends 2 for $4
Grimmway Farms carrot chips 99 cents per 16 ounce package
Yellow onions: $1.28/3 pound bag
Stemilt Washington apples: 99 cents per pound : braeburn or jonagold
Fresh blueberries: $2.88 per 4.4 ounce

Hen House (Oct. 30 to Nov. 6)
Jumbo sized seedless red scarlotta grapes from Sn World: $1.48/lb
Hot house tomatoes on the vine: $1.28/lb
Apple Sweets from Stemilt: 2 15-16-ounce bags for $5
Fresh whole pineapple: $3.99 each
Earthbound Farm certified organic spring mix or baby spinach: $4.99/each
Wholly Guacamole: 7 ounce size 2 for $3
POM Wonderful pomegranates 2 for $3
California navels, 3-lb bag 2 for $4
Whole almonds ( cholesterol claim) $4.99/16 ounce bag
Green Giant fresh baby carrots: 2 for $4 (2-pound size)
Green Giant whole mushroom: $1.28/each

Price Chopper (Oct. 30 to Nov. 6)
Green asparagus: $1.88/lb
Fuji apples: $1.29/lb
Washington anjou pears: 99 cents/lb
Dole fresh jumbo pineapple: $3.99
POM Wonderful pomegranates: 2 for $3
Green Giant sliced baby portabilla mushrooms: 2 for $4
Mission Hass avocados: 99 cents each
Mann's sugar snap peas or snow peas: 2 for $5 : 6-ounce to 8-ounce bags
Roma tomatoes: 99 cents/lb
Earthbound Farm organic salad: 2 for $6
Earthbound Farm organic potatoes: $1.99/5-pound bag

Steam Bags Revisited

From Guest Blogger Pamela R.:


If you haven't checked out The Packer's featured section, Pamela's Kitchen, you're missing out on the fun. My last episode featured the "Steam Bag Showdown!" where I tried the Glad Simply Cooking and the Ziploc Zip n' Steam.

I was kind of wishy-washy, giving them a 6 out of 10 on the Squeezy Fruit Scale (I should trademark that, eh?). I think it may have been due to the fact that I was cooking haricort vert (skinny green beans) and they just didn't have the structure to hold up to the steam.

So, ths weekend, I found myself with little time and a little squash so I tried the Simply Cooking again.

Excellent!

Four minutes in the microwave and I'd probably give it an 8 out of 10.

Stay tuned. Next time I'm going to try something on the stove. I'm keeping it a secret for now.

Harkin coming through

The full Senate is expected to debate the farm bill next week. Here is an audio link of the Sen. Tom Harkin teleconference of last Thursday, not long after the Senate Agriculture Committee passed the farm bill out of committee. He trumpets the f/v program and said that he believes the total bill will find pretty good support on the floor, though he said there will be amendments on payment limits, nutrition and rural development. Harkin is expected to have another press conference tomorrow. Meanwhile, Harkin's office release the following about the fruit and vegetable program:

Senate Farm Bill Expands Access to Fresh
Fruits and Vegetables for Iowa
Students

65,000 Iowa school children will now have access, Up from 12,000 currently enrolled

Washington, D.C. – The 2007 farm bill that passed the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry last week invests heavily in The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) and will expand access to the program for elementary students in Iowa and around the country, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) said today. This investment will enable up to 65,000 Iowa school children to participate in the program, more than a five fold increase from the 12,000 Iowa school children who attend participating Iowa schools in the 2007-08 school year. Harkin is Chairman of the Committee and the author of the FFVP.

“The farm bill is about food and nutrition and should be an opportunity to encourage healthy diets and promote health. With this historic expansion of the Fruit and Vegetable Program, not only do we make a tremendous investment in the health of our children, but we also expand the idea of what a farm bill can and should be.” said Harkin. “What began as an immensely successful pilot program just 5 years ago will now grow into a national program that encourages fresh fruit and vegetable consumption to million of elementary school children across the country, particularly those in disadvantaged communities. I am delighted we are expanding the program in Iowa and nationally.” “Senator Harkin has been a true leader in nutrition. His efforts to increase fruit and vegetable access for low-income children is an example of his dedication to improving nutritious offerings for Iowans,” said Sister Ladonna Woerdeman, diabetes outpatient educator, registered dietitian, and media representative for the Iowa Dietetic Association.

When fully implemented, the FFVP funding levels will enable up to 4.5 million elementary school children to receive free fresh fruits and vegetables at school. The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program began as a pilot program when Senator Harkin authored it in the 2002 farm bill. Iowa was one of the 4 original pilot
states.

Currently, this program receives $15 million annually,
serving 14 states plus 3 Indian Tribal Organizations. They
are:

Indiana
North
Carolina
Utah
Iowa
Washington

Idaho
Michigan
Wisconsin
New Mexico
Mississippi
Texas

Pine Ridge in South Dakota
Ohio
Connecticut
Zuni in New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Utah

Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only 14 percent of children meet dietary recommendations for fruit consumption. And only 20 percent meet dietary recommendations for vegetable consumption.

Please feel free to forward this update to whomever you think would be interested in the information. If this was sent to you by a friend or colleague and you wish to be on the mailing list or you would like to subscribe to newsletters on other issues.

Time for a fresh produce checkoff

We haven't had a plethora of votes on the Fruits and Veggies - More Matters blog question this week, (where's the passion, people?) but early returns suggest that the launch of the More Matters campaign met expectations of Fresh Talk readers. Please vote on the poll question soon, as it will close in a couple of days.

Regarding the More Matters campaign, I believe it has created a brand message that is sustainable. That is, there is no danger the government will come out with dietary guidelines recommending reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables.
The message itself communicates that eating more fresh produce is always a good idea, just like one should always "drink more water." It's a message that doesn't carry a lot of latent appeal by itself. However, The umbrella message of "More Matters" will be supported by other promotion themes such as" healthy" as soon as next year, according to PBH president Elizabeth Pivonka. Perhaps "tasty" will also get a turn? Importantly, the Foundation is committed to tracking the public awareness of the brand message in future consumer surveys.

I found an interesting article about generic promotion on the Web. The influence of generic promotion on brand preference by Amitav Chakravarti and Chris Janiszewski provided context to the issue.

Some background grafs on generic promotion:

"In 1937, Congress enacted the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act. The goal of the legislation was to establish marketing rules for farm commodities and to encourage the marketing of these commodities via industry committees. Producers of commodities were required to remit a small percentage of their proceeds to commodity boards that pooled the resources and used them to promote consumption. As of 1990, 30 commodity boards had been established by Acts of Congress.
During the 1990s, rulings by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California weakened legislation that forced producers to make mandatory contributions for generic advertising. In December 1993, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) almond marketing order and, in June 1995, the USDA nectarine and peach marketing order were found unconstitutional. The court reasoned that generic advertising had not been shown to be more successful at increasing primary demand than brand advertising. Thus, growers should be able to use their money to advertise individually. In response to the findings of the Ninth Circuit Court, the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 authorized check-off generic advertising programs. The legislation includes a congressional finding that generic advertising programs are in the national public interest and vital to the welfare of the agricultural economy. Moreover, the legislation states that generic advertising programs "never were designed or intended to restrict, prohibit, or replace the advertising and promotion activities of any individuals or groups of individuals" (Becker 1996, p. 1). These check-off programs can be initiated by the USDA and, if approved in a referendum of industry participants, can require producers to "pay assessments which are used to fund generic (as opposed to branded) promotion, research, advertising, and related activities designed to increase consumption of that commodity" (Becker 1996, p. 1). As of 2001, 13 of the 20 national check-off programs (e.g., dairy, fluid milk, beef, soybeans, cotton, pork) authorized by Congress were active, as were approximately 35 commodity programs being run by state organizations (e.g., apples, avocados, orange juice.)

The research concludes:

"More than a billion dollars is spent annually on generic advertisements that promote the consumption of commodity goods. Generic advertising is designed to increase primary demand, or the "size of the pie," without affecting selective demand, or the "share of the pie." We find evidence to the contrary generic advertising increases the consumer's sensitivity to changes in price and systematically alters brand preferences. These effects of generic advertising can be attributed to the tendency of generic ads to change the relative importance of the attributes used to evaluate the brands. The results have implications for the public policy issue of how to effectively implement generic advertising without differentially benefiting certain brands and the managerial issue of how to integrate generic and brand advertising in order to achieve product category and brand differentiation goals. "

TK: My first instinct is to say the fresh produce industry has for too long been blind to the opportunity to create a national checkoff program for fresh fruits and vegetables. What would generic promotion of fresh produce look like if there was a mandatory assessment on all produce marketers? The National Cattlemen's Beef Association in 2005 had a budget of about $62 million to carry out checkoff funded promotions for beef. Compare that to the $5-6 million the Produce for Better Health Foundation typically has at its disposal. Some would argue that generic promotion ( including the authors of the research cited above) would make it harder for brand marketers to differentiate their products. Generic advertising also may increase responsiveness to price and reduce consumer information about non-advertised traits. Despite those limitations and reservations, I think the industry needs to field a generic promotion campaign that is representative with beef and milk (about $60 million and $100 million, respectively). Generic promotion raises visibility and helps define the message that consumers associate with fresh produce. In my view, the only way to fund an annual promotion effort that would invest $40 million to $50 million in consumer promotions is with a mandatory checkoff program for fresh produce. It's time for industry leaders to make it happen.

Asparagus Market Look In