For the past three years, CFFA has used nutrition data, usage ideas and beautiful photography to support the social media platforms of its importers, wholesalers and retailers. Karen Brux, managing director for CFFA, said it has now finally launched its own Fruits from Chile social media platforms.

“This is not a Chilean Fresh Fruit Association initiative, but rather a global collaboration between our offices in North America, Santiago, Chile, and Europe, which also manages the Asian market,” Brux said. “We launched everything at the end of October, which includes Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for B2C, and Twitter and Linked-In for B2B. YouTube will have a little of both.”

Chile promotions offer ‘A taste of summer.’She added that throughout the month of December, CFFA will have a weekly drawing for gift certificates. Participants need only “like us” on its Fruits from Chile Facebook page to enter.

Through experience, CFFA has found that tailored, customized promotions are most effective for the organization.

“Based on the success of certain promotions in the past two years, we will certainly be expanding on partner demos, working with everything from yogurts to pancake mixes to Tajin seasoning, which is especially popular within the Hispanic market,” said Brux. “For cherries, we’ve done numerous joint promotions with Bing, the beverage company, which is perfect for us both. They get increased exposure in the produce department, and the large displays and demos draw attention to cherries, which, for many people, are an unexpected item during the winter months.”

Retailers can further capitalize at Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day during the winter months. They can also organize promotions around American Heart Month in February.

“Because Chile offers fruits that are typically perceived as summer fruits such as grapes, blueberries and stone fruits, we have numerous point-of-sale materials with the tagline ‘A taste of summer. Fresh from Chile,’” Brux explained. “We also developed customized point-of-sale materials to support retail chains in their broad-based Taste of Chile promotions that merchandise the large spectrum of fruits available from Chile during the winter months.”

She added that the Defense Commissary Agency has also been a big supporter of Chilean-themed promotions.

In terms of new varieties, Brux said that some may not be new to retailers, but they are still new to consumers. Lemon plums and Muscat grapes are among them. The Lemon plum is heart-shaped and changes from a yellow to red color as it ripens. With availability in February, it is a perfect pick for Valentine’s Day, and its unique appearance definitely gives a boost to the entire stone fruit category.

“Increasingly more retailers are promoting Chile’s Muscat grape, which is available primarily in April,” Brux said. “The flavor is unique to any other grape variety, and offers something different for consumers. This is exactly what retailers want. Everyone’s looking for a unique and great tasting variety they can use to draw customers into their stores. When retailers sell Muscats, they see that their entire grape sales get a nice lift.”

Brux also pointed out that the Chilean Blueberry Committee recently relaunched its website, located at
www.comitedearandanos.cl, with a new design and layout. News on the site is updated continually. Crop updates are available at www.cbbc.iqonsulting.com/index.php?lang=en.

“Chile’s blueberry shipments year-to-date are behind last year, but we still expect total exports for the season to be up from last year,” said Brux. “North America is the main market for Chilean blueberries, receiving 67 percent of its exports.

“Things have picked up since 2013-14 when Chile had freezes,” she continued. “While other markets are growing, North America is clearly the largest market for Chilean fruit.”

Brux stressed that the best way for retailers to pull consumer attention to Chilean fruit is by creating large attractive displays and giving shoppers reasons to purchase it.

“In addition to cross promoting with other products, utilizing retail social media channels has been an incredibly effective means of communication for the CFFA and its associated blueberry, cherry and citrus committees,” said Brux. “We have a wide and diverse range of beautiful photography, usage ideas and even videos from Chilean orchards that retailers can share with their customers to help bring the story of Chilean fruit to life. We also support numerous small retail social media promotions for Chilean fruit, giving away everything from store gift certificates to Nutribullets, or even lemonade stands during the summer.”