With substantial new plantings coming into production, Medjool date production in the Bard Valley, located along the lower Colorado River, is on the rise.

A display unit with Bard Valley’s new retail snack packs. (Photo Courtesy of Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Assoc.)The Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association in Bard, CA, which last year introduced a new consumer brand, “Natural Delights,” has increased its distribution of products carrying the new brand this year by probably 30 percent over the prior year, according to Dave Anderson, marketing director for the association. “Our acceptance with both the trade and consumers has gone extremely well.”

Planted acreage “continues to increase in production,” he said Aug. 22. “These are young trees. We’ve got 4,500 acres planted just in Bard. We are projecting a 20 to 30 percent increase in total tonnage [this year over last] for harvest.” The harvest was just beginning and was expected to continue for about six weeks.

Considerably more growth is expected in the years ahead. “Our goal is to triple our consumption in the next three years, so we’ve got a pretty aggressive plan,” Mr. Anderson said.

“We have to stimulate new users in the category, so everything we do [as an association] is to get somebody to try our product,” he said.

Part of that effort is the introduction this year of a new retail consumer product line called Snack Packs. “We are going to offer a product with a more approachable price point,” Mr. Anderson said. “The snack packs, which will be used for various products such as pitted dates and date rolls, will contain “anywhere from four to six” dates or rolls per package. “These will be available in the fall this year. They are being sold in a pouch as opposed to a tub. We are going to do the three date roll varieties — almond, pistachio and coconut, and we will also have the Medjools available in this configuration.”

Each pack will contain “probably a little more than a single serve,” he said, “but it is an item that we can get under $3 at retail” to help build the consumer base for the brand.

“The association will be engaging in a whole different form of consumer marketing this fall” to what it has done in the past, Mr. Anderson said.

The new campaign strategy will be “highlighted by our move to doing targeted consumer advertising in magazines” beginning in September and continuing for four months. “These are full-page ads with dollar off coupons.”

The ads will run in geo-targeted editions of Cooking Light, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Health Magazine and Fitness, in six selected markets, he said. The markets are Chicago, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Boston.

“This gives us an opportunity to raise awareness but also to try to stimulate trial,” Mr. Anderson continued. “The efforts are really driven by trying to get people to try this product.”

Two different ads will be used. “Our first ad will break with the headline, ‘Taste Energy,’” he said. “We are conveying a healthy snacking message with a little bit of a health and wellness slant.” The second ad is “recipe driven” and “usage related and talks about a variety of ways to use the product.”

While the magazine ads constitute the largest expenditure of the campaign, the second-largest expenditure is digital banner advertising on the internet, Mr. Anderson said. “We are participating with over 100 different websites.” The idea, he explained, is “to direct people to landing pages that are market-specific, all targeted towards what we consider to be our best markets, where we have product. We are trying to be as specific and as cost-efficient and as targeted as possible.”

Consumers can click on a dollar-off coupon online and print out the coupon.

The association is involved with social media as well. “Every week we are doing what we call Data friends, which is our Facebook promotion.” That began in July, and it generates 600 winners every week who receive a dollar-off coupon and a free four-pack of Medjool dates by mail.

“We are up to 32,000 fans now on Facebook,” he said. “We are really trying to utilize this, again, to stimulate usage and get people to try our product. It is very expensive, but as far as we are concerned, it is dollars well spent.”

The quality of the 2012 crop “looks good,” Mr. Anderson said. “We grow, it is acknowledged, probably the world’s finest Medjool dates. The export business is very healthy and we’ve got a lot of demand for them.”

About 90 percent of the date volume from association members is packed at DatePac LLC, a facility owned by the members. David Nelson, vice president of the association and vice president of sales at DatePac, told The Produce News that the packing facility has recently been expanded with the addition of more cold storage and a second computerized grading and sorting line duplicating the existing line.

In addition, he said, “it is an ongoing process to continually upgrade the quality of the pack,” and that involves upgrading software to make it “better all the time. That is a continual thing. Every year we work on making that better.