PMA Board of Directors establishes marketing as strategic priority for PMA

During the first Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Board of Directors meeting of 2016, the association’s Marketing Task Force recommended that PMA establish marketing as a strategic priority during the next two years.

The goal is to drive the concept of “marketing as a discipline” throughout the industry, according to a news release. This would include hiring a chief marketing officer, who would be responsible for developing and executing the association’s activities to drive fresh produce consumption and floral demand. In addition to these two recommendations, PMA would also:

• Develop and maintain a portfolio of tools/programs and training that members regularly access and implement as they work to drive consumption through more sophisticated marketing.

• Proactively disseminate industry-wide marketing intelligence for both the produce and floral industries, becoming a primary and credible source.

The board also received a FNV initiative progress report from the Partnership for a Healthier America and discussed options to scale FNV nationally in the U.S. beyond the two pilot markets in which it is currently operating. Other discussions during the meeting included:

• Current and future consumer technology trends as identified in the annual PMA environmental scan, as well as member value offerings about obstacles and opportunities in those areas.

• Opportunities and challenges for protected/vertical agriculture technologies in produce and floral production. Here, several board directors with expertise in protected agriculture were joined by representatives from AeroFarms, a vertical farm operating in Newark, New Jersey, for a panel discussion on the topic.

• The role of fresh produce and floral in omni-channel retail. For this, the board was joined by guests Kevin Coupe, retail observer and publisher of MorningNewsBeat.com, and Tom Furphy, CEO/Managing Partner of Consumer Equity Partners (formerly of Amazon.com and AmazonFresh).

The PMA Foundation for Industry Talent Board of Directors approved an “invest to grow” budget to implement its interim strategic plan. The new efforts will include capitalizing on the organization’s 10th anniversary during 2016 as well as executing on initiatives to build the current strategies to attract and retain produce and floral employees.

For more information, visit the PMA website.