Marketing Campaign Promotes Florida Grapefruit, Sweet Corn, and Blueberries to Shoppers in United Kingdom, Bronson Announces

News Date January 20, 2006

          Grocery shoppers in the United Kingdom are seeing their winter days brightened by a ray of Florida sunshine. Waitrose--a prominent retail chain with 180 stores throughout the U.K.--is featuring fresh Florida grapefruit, sweet corn and blueberries as part of a marketing campaign developed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that runs through May.
          "The United Kingdom marketing promotion is the latest in our series of campaigns to increase sales of Florida-grown agricultural products both domestically and abroad," Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said. "In the past five years, these marketing efforts have helped boost retail sales by more than $1 billion. That's good news for Florida's growers and our state's economy."
          Each Florida product will be featured for two or more weeks during the campaign. Promotions will include in-store samplings, recipe cards, and feature articles in Waitrose's magazine which reaches hundreds of thousands of British consumers. In addition, the department's executive chef will conduct demonstrations in Waitrose's flagship outlets that have kitchen and audience facilities. The events are designed to draw shoppers, media representatives, chefs and restaurant owners.
          This year's expanded Waitrose campaign follows 2005's pilot program that featured Florida sweet corn exclusively. As a result of in-store samplings and demonstrations, Waitrose reported a 125 percent increase in sales of Florida sweet corn versus the same period in 2004. The pilot program cost $26,100 with Waitrose and the department each paying half.
          The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is statutorily mandated to provide professional marketing services to Florida's agricultural community through its Division of Marketing and Development. These marketing promotions are part of the ongoing "Fresh from Florida" campaign, an identification and promotional program designed to boost the image of Florida agriculture and increase sales by helping consumers to identify Florida-grown agricultural products at retail stores. The "Fresh from Florida" campaign also helps increase public awareness of the importance of Florida's agriculture industry, which has an estimated overall economic impact of more than $62 billion annually.
          For information about Florida agriculture or the "Fresh from Florida" program, visit http://www.Florida-Agriculture.com. (Contact: Dan Sleep, 850/487-8908)