—story by Kate Prengaman
—photo by Ross Courtney
Washington growers expect to harvest 124 million 40-pound boxes of fresh-market apples this fall, and some believe it’s time to do more to promote them.
Consumption, nationally, has flatlined, despite the industry’s bet that improved varieties would boost demand, and the bumper 2023 harvest sunk prices below the costs of production for some growers.
“We all know that our current supply/demand balance is broken,” said Doug Pauly of Northern Fruit Co. That’s why he approached the Washington Apple Commission with a proposal to re-enter the sphere of domestic marketing with a targeted campaign to promote the health benefits of apples. The commission shuttered its domestic promotions in 2003 and now only works in export markets.
“We’ve been doing what we are doing for 20 years,” Pauly said to the commission’s board at its May meeting. “Let’s try something new.”
Pauly’s pitch, in a nutshell: Increase the apple assessment from 3.5 cents a box to 4.5 cents a box and use the extra $1.3 million raised on a targeted health messaging campaign for the U.S. market. The campaign would complement, not compete with, the marketing efforts of sales desks.
“There’s one hole in what we are trying to do: Who is waking up every day and trying to deliver the message that apples are a health food? What if we collectively create (that) job?” he said.
He envisions the funds being used to compile a library of existing research into the health benefits of apples and to create marketing materials based on those findings. That’s earned the proposal a shorthand name of the Apples = Health initiative.
While no vote was taken in May, in a late-July special meeting, board members directed the commission staff to turn Pauly’s pitch into a more concrete proposal for review. That will be presented to the board at the commission’s next meeting on Oct. 15, according to the commission’s outgoing president, Todd Fryhover.
“Although we do not do these activities in the domestic market, we do have experience doing things like developing content, accessing bloggers, finding key opinion leaders and developing (marketing) strategies,” Fryhover said.
If the board votes in support of the proposal, it would then need to be put before all of the state’s apple growers for a vote, which state law requires for all assessment increases. To pass, it would need supermajority support (66.7 percent) of all assessment-paying growers in the state and supermajority support on a by-volume basis, Fryhover said.
That’s a tall order.
The last time the Washington Apple Commission put an assessment increase out for a vote, in 2008, it failed, he said.
Times have changed, though.
“I think everybody recognizes that we are in unparalleled times, and something needs to be done,” Fryhover said.
Some apple commission board members question whether the Washington Apple Commission should lead a domestic marketing effort or if it should be the purview of the new, national coalition trying to build the Eat More Apples campaign (see “Eat More Apples!” on Page 8). That campaign is being funded by donations rather than assessments.
Grower and commissioner Dave Robison said he supports both.
“What’s a penny a box? We’ve just got to promote our product, and we’re not doing it,” he said. “I think the apple commission does a great job in the foreign market, but there is a lot of competition in the produce market, and we have to be proactive. I think saying apples are healthy is a great way to go.”
Pauly said he also supports both approaches, but he noted the Washington Apple Commission offers an advantage in that it already has the structure to collect assessments and do the work.
“This is simple, it’s focused, and we can do it now,” he said. “At Northern, telling our growers that we’re not trying anything new doesn’t feel good.” •
The Washington Apple Commission will meet Oct. 15 at 10 a.m. at the Kittitas Valley Event Center, located at 901 E. 7th Ave. in Ellensburg, Washington.
Leave A Comment