According to information provided by Karen Brux, Marketing Director of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) in North America, ASOEX's Citrus Committee launched four months of social media promotions in North America. The promotions will go from July through late October and their purpose is to promote and celebrate Chile's largest export of citrus, to date, corresponding to lemons, Navels and mandarins.
According to Brux, the program will consist of promotional actions on Facebook for three months, from July to September, as well as a promotion on Instagram, which will run from July to October.
The Director of the CFFA said that there the different Chilean citrus categories have different peak dates, so they will focus on a different fruit each month.
Lemons will take center stage in July under the slogan: "A day in the life of a lemon" which has been posted on the Facebook page of FruitsfromChile since July 6, with different weekly messages. Each week, participants will be invited to share their recipes, photos or usage ideas related to this Chilean fruit to encourage its consumption on different occasions.
The first week will focus on breakfast, followed by lunch, dinner, and dessert.
Brux said that the Committee will hold weekly draws among participants, who can win a card for USD $100, cooking utensils, or other items linked to the topic of the week.
Navels and Mandarins
In August, the focus of the campaign will be on promoting the Chilean Navels oranges. The third and final promotion on Facebook, during September, will focus on mandarins. "Citrus is the largest and fastest growing fruit category in Chile," said Brux.
The promotion carried out on social networks like Instagram seeks to encourage consumers to share their favorite photo of lemons, oranges or Chilean easy peelers.
According to Brux, the Chilean 2017 citrus season began with the first shipments of Clementines in week 15 and continued with exports of lemons, Navels and mandarins. The first shipment of mandarins of the season departed from the port of Valparaiso in week 25.
According to forecasts, this season's mandarin export volume will stand at around 67 thousand tons, i.e. 26% more than in 2016. This increase is due in large part to the increase in the cultivated area of this fruit and the consequent entry into production of the new orchards.
Finally, the CFFA representative stressed that in addition to social networking promotions, the Committee was also partnering with numerous local and regional retail chains from the United States and Canada to promote Chilean citrus. The promotions are carried out jointly with ProChile.
Source: SimFRUIT/CFFA