January Mango Connection

Volume 3 | Issue 1 | January 2008
en español

The New Year means a fresh start to our marketing, promotion, research and industry outreach programs. 2008 will be a very exciting year for the National Mango Board (NMB) with innovative marketing programs scheduled for every season and groundbreaking research underway to help improve mango quality.

Click on any underlined text to get more information about that item.


	Research Update

The NMB is working closely with a team of researchers from the University of Florida and the University of California-Davis on a research project to evaluate harvest, post harvest, and handling practices to improve the quality of mangos sold in the U.S.

So far, the team has been to Ecuador and Peru to visit orchards and packing sheds. They have tracked and evaluated a shipment of mangos from each country to the U.S. to better understand the issues introduced during shipping. Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala will also be involved with the research, with each country being visited at least twice.

In addition to the growing, packing and shipping evaluations, the team will work with specific retail partners in the U.S. to better understand any retail distribution and handling issues that impact mangos. The team will make a total of 42 distribution center visits and 126 store-level evaluations, spread out during each country's shipping season.

This project represents a comprehensive effort to monitor and evaluate the mango supply chain. One of the results of this research will be the development of a Best Management Practices Manual which can help the entire industry, from growers to retailers, do their part to improve mango quality.


	Crop Forecast Updates

Don't forget to check out the Mango Crop Forecast, which is updated whenever we receive new information from any of the top producing countries for U.S. mango imports. Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua are included in the current forecast.


	Consumer PR & Marketing Update

Final numbers are still rolling in, but at last count, the NMB was responsible for consumers seeing mango messages over 250 million times in 2007. If we had purchased this exposure in the form of advertising, it would have cost nearly $3 million! Check out the latest version of the consumer PR results tracker for more details.

Your NMB marketing team has been hard at work preparing for our sponsorship of the GRAMMY Celebration official after-party. Tony Abou-Ganim, our celebrity Mixologist has whipped up The Sweet Escape, a mango drink inspired by the nominated song of the same name by Gwen Stefani. Tony will be behind the mango bar at the celebration, serving the drink and sharing his passion for mangos with the beautiful people of Los Angeles and the music industry. This sponsorship will set the stage for far-reaching print and broadcast coverage all across the country. The news is - mangos are hip!


	Retail Promotions & Marketing Update

Your NMB Retail Account Managers are busy following up with retailers to close out the paperwork on 2007 promotions and to ensure that early 2008 promotions are executed as planned. These ladies are up to the challenge of creating year-round promotions so that each season and growing region gets the retail support and promotions they deserve. Our goal is to match our quarterly promotion funding percentage to the 3-year historical average percentage of imports for that quarter. For example, from 2005 to 2007, first quarter has accounted for 20% of the mango imports. So in 2008 we have allocated 20% of our promotions budget to this period. This allocation plan helps us create a year-round plan that will serve each country and growing region equitably.


	Foodservice PR & Marketing Update

The National Mango Board co-sponsored the Produce First! American Menus Initiative, January 20, 2008, in Napa Valley, California. Produce First! is a collaboration between Produce for Better Health Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America designed to get chefs and foodservice operators thinking about produce as the first part of menu development. The attendees take ideas from American, Asian, Mediterranean and Latin American cuisine to develop new, flavorful recipes around produce. The attendance is by invitation-only and includes chefs and operators from restaurants, hotels, volume foodservice and supermarkets including McDonalds, Darden Restaurants (Bahama Breeze, Olive Garden and Red Lobster), Marriott, Hyatt, Princess Cruises, Aramark, Harvard University and Wegman's. Mango were served throughout the day - from fresh mangos at breakfast, guacamole with mango at lunch and mango rice pudding at dinner, to name a few!


	Trade Media Update

One of the ways we get our message out to retailers is through the produce and grocery trade media. Our action plan includes a year-round advertising schedule, monthly press releases and ongoing communication with the editors and writers of these publications. Click here to see our latest trade media ad.


	Industry Relations Update

NMB Executive Director, William Watson's calendar is already full for 2008 as outreach meetings have been planned throughout the year. The plan includes a visit to every major mango producing country, as well as all of the major entry ports in the U.S. During each meeting William presents a brief history of the NMB and reviews our programs and results. We encourage you to attend these meetings to learn more about the NMB. After all, this is YOUR National Mango Board.

On February 6th, 2008, the NMB will host an industry outreach meeting in Miami, FL. In addition to our regular outreach meetings, industry leader George Mendez presented the NMB programs to attendees of the APHIS 15th Annual Mango Program meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on January 30th.

For dates and more information about upcoming events, please visit the Calendar page in the Industry section of mango.org.


	Next Board Meeting

The NMB's next board meeting will take place on March 4th, 5th and 6th in Houston, Texas.