Ontario Produce Marketing Association has had a busy year engaging with regulatory issues, diversifying its Produce Made Simple website, delivering Quality Assurance Training seminars and collaborating with other regional associations on its “New Fast Food” posters. All the activity paid off as the association’s membership grew again in 2014.

“We believe membership continues to expand due to positive word-of-mouth and recommendations from our current members about how valuable and cost-effective the services we provide are to them, as well as the networking opportunities we provide at our three annual events [golf, Gala and curling bonspiel],” said OPMA President Ian MacKenzie.

Marketing and Communications Director Simone Weber has been in charge of the changes to the Produce Made Simple consumer website (www.producemadesimple.ca). The site’s redesign includes expanded content and partnering with new food bloggers. OPMA currently has 5,500 Facebook followers, 1,040 Twitter followers and over 3,000 Pinterest followers. Weber is planning a $50,000 media campaign in the fall, which should grow the association’s social media presence even more.

OPMA has also been offering Quality Assurance Training seminars, delivered by Jeff Honey, director of inspection services. In March, Honey traveled to Quebec to deliver a French-language seminar, and he hopes to get to British Columbia before the end of the year. “Jeff has now trained a total of 815 people over the last 18 years. It is the only training like it in Canada for quality controller personnel dealing in fresh produce,” noted MacKenzie.

The Ontario association continues to collaborate with other regional associations on strategies like the “New Fast Food” poster campaign. The promotion features 10 different posters illustrating various fast food items replaced with a fresh fruit or vegetable. “Manitoba was recently sent 50 sets of 10 and we distributed 1,100 sets to Ontario school boards during 2013 and 2014,” said MacKenzie.

Regulatory issues are another area of concentration. “As an industry, we have taken a proactive approach to some of these issues by preparing Industry Best Practices documents related to the inspection of imported loads by the Canadian Border Services Agency and a soon-to-be released Best Practices for Preventing Soil on Imported Produce.  We are also working closely with regional CFIA food-safety officials, reviewing the checklist that they use when inspecting wholesale premises,” MacKenzie explained.

OPMA continues to offer valuable networking opportunities through events like its golf tournament and upcoming Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony. The Gala Dinner will be held on Nov. 14, featuring comedian Ron James from CBC’s “The Ron James Show” as entertainment. This year’s theme is Winter Wonderland and guests can look forward to making maple taffy on the show. The awards honour partners who have significantly contributed to the industry. The evening offers a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed by the dinner and awards at 7:30 p.m. MacKenzie projected 600 people will attend the function.