Market Minute: Sweet corn supplies ready for early promotion
Market Minute: Sweet corn supplies ready for early promotion
Oftentimes it can be beneficial to promote certain seasonal produce items ahead of your competition. Normally corn displays are initially set up, advertised and launched around the end of March into April.
There’s an old proverb that states, “the early bird gets the worm,” and now can be an ideal time to do just that with sweet corn.
Current corn supplies are good with excellent quality. There is a fairly light demand with a steady market right now out of central and south Florida. Corn out of Mexico is moderate with a slightly lower market.
Merchandising tips: This is a good time to promote sweet corn on an end cap display. Give your customers a good feeling of farm freshness. Use original crates or cartons to build a waterfall spillover display that makes it feel like the corn was just picked from the field.
Always place a false bottom inside the cartons under the corn to give it that massive presentation and prevent shrink at the same time. Display trimmed and packaged premium priced corn with the loose ears to earn that extra gross profit.
As always, discuss an advertising plan with your sweet corn supplier for the amounts required in order to accomplish a successful early sales promotion.
Ron Pelger is a produce industry adviser and industry writer. He can be contacted at 775/843-2394 or by e-mail at [email protected].
