Top takeaways from education day at SEPC’s Southern Exposure

The first three education sessions at the Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Exposure included a deep dive on the new Power of Produce report, an examination of generational differences in the workplace, and a conversation with entrepreneur, author and Frey Farms founder Sarah Frey.

Here’s a recap of opportunities identified and recommendations offered during the event April 7.

Put that idea into action.

“Whatever it is that you want to do, just start,” Frey said at the Southern Roots women’s luncheon. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’ll figure it out.”

She noted that sometimes people talk themselves out of a big leap by wondering if they’ve taken all the right steps or if someone else might be better prepared than they are.

“Don’t ask yourself in your mind if you deserve it,” Frey said. “You see something that you want, don’t overthink it – just go for it.”

Think about solving for meal occasions.

For vegetables, lunch and dinner are the meal occasions driving growth amid the pandemic, said Anne-Marie Roerink, principal of 210 Analytics, who presented the new Power of Produce report from FMI. For fruit, breakfast and snacking are driving growth.

She suggested retailers consider how they can connect items to meal occasions in their merchandising and marketing – keeping in mind how those occasions might be different now than in previous years.

Aim to move up on the influencer list.

Forty-one percent of consumers report that family and friends are a source of ideas or inspiration for meals, according to the report. Recipe websites, YouTube, cookbooks and Facebook were also popular resources. Closer to the bottom of this list were recipes provided by food brands (13%), grocery store website or app (12%) and recipes provided by my grocery store (11%).

Consumer trip patterns are normalizing some, but not when it comes to holidays.

“One of the biggest changes I’m still seeing is the very different traffic patterns surrounding holidays,” Roerink said. “What we’re actually seeing now is that the week before the holiday week is the big one because people are trying to spread out the purchases, not be in store and have these lines with 50 people.”

Consider ways to position your product as a great pairing with meat or seafood.

With people cooking at home more, meat dollar sales increased 19.2% in 2020, and seafood sales increased 25.7%, according to the Power of Produce report. Roerink recommended suggesting to consumers which fruits and vegetables will go well with different proteins by using ads, point-of-sale material, cross-merchandising, secondary displays and other tactics.

Balancing the carrot and the stick is the key for creating organizational change.

In the session on generational differences in the workplace, an audience member asked for suggestions on when to mandate changes – such as using email instead of fax – versus just recommending them.

Clark Roper, senior produce buyer for Piggly Wiggly, noted that is a work in progress in his organization, but he added that while some people will always resist change, showing people the value of change is the best way to get those folks on board who are open to it.

“We’re going to try to use as much carrot to get the people that can be drawn that way so we can keep the morale behind the project high,” Roper said. “We’re trying to lead our people to a place as opposed to force them to go somewhere.”

Now’s the time to build holistic messaging around social responsibility.

“This whole idea of ‘better for me’ is part of a bigger movement,” Roerink said.

Consumers also want products to be better for the planet and better for farm workers. Those social responsibility attributes and nutritional value are tied together, Roerink said. It comes down to people wanting to feel great about their food.

Cooking more is a trend that’s here to stay, even if it doesn’t stay at pandemic levels.

“I’ve seen some data that says only 60% of people by July will be comfortable in a restaurant and even by next October like 80%,” Mike Roberts, director of produce for Harps Food Stores, said during the Power of Produce session. “You’re still talking about 20% of people that aren’t comfortable eating in a restaurant. And as we all know in this group, before the pandemic, a 1% sales increase was a big deal, so 20% of the population still cooking (more), that’s a big deal.”

There’s power in telling your story.

This message came through in several ways in Frey’s address at the Southern Roots women’s luncheon.

What motivated her to write her new book, The Growing Season, was a conversation with a young bartender who wanted to start her own business but was scared to take the leap; Frey spent a few minutes talking with her, and a few years later Frey ran into the woman again and found out she had quit bartending and had her own company. Frey felt compelled to share her story more broadly with the hope that it could be similarly inspiring to other entrepreneurs, particularly young women.

Her story is also being made into a TV series. Not only will this format broaden the reach of her message to go after what you want even if you don’t have it all figured out yet, but having a specialty crop operation as the background of a show will provide some insight to consumers on what it takes to grow produce and how deals get done that bring products to retail and foodservice.

One more example of the power of telling your story – in the midst of the pandemic, Frey was working from home, and one of her sons asked what he could do to help. She recalled flippantly replying (and feeling bad about it later) that he could sell some watermelons, but he said, “Okay!” and set about posting on social media. It turned out that people were eager to get out of their homes on a nice day, and so on Easter weekend Frey’s sons and their cousins sold more than 5,000 watermelons.

That experience with direct-to-consumer marketing informed the counsel Frey gives now to small family farms looking to grow their business.

“This is not the same advice that I would have given two years ago, but it’s the advice that I would give now, and that would be to build your business and build your brand and to tell your family or farm story online in such a way that consumers (find) engaging,” Frey said. “It’s kind of all about telling your story.”