Richard Peterson
Executive Director, California Dried Plum Board
Rich Peterson manages the state and federal marketing orders for California dried plums/prunes. Prior to joining the dried plum/prune industry in 1986, Rich managed marketing orders for fresh peaches, plums, nectarines and Bartlett pears and canned peaches and pears. Before becoming involved with agricultural marketing orders, Rich held marketing management positions with food processors like Carnation Company and Hunt-Wesson Foods, Inc. Rich earned a B.B.A. degree in marketing from the University of Iowa, then served as a supply officer in the U.S. Navy before earning an M.B.A. from Northwestern University
California prunes have been present in the Japanese market for over 20 years.
The California Prune Board has promoted in Japan for over 20 years because it has been our largest and most important export market. We currently ship about 9,600 MT annually to Japan, in years past we exported over 16,000 MT when economic conditions were more positive. Japan has been a very responsive market for our industry because consumers understand and appreciate the nutritional attributes of California Prunes like fiber, iron, potassium and antioxidants. Television advertising and publicity for these attributes has been extremely well received by Japanese consumers. The California Prune Board has used the Market Access Program and industry funding to establish an image of California prunes as a healthy, natural food to promote health and beauty for women.
In the spring of 2008, the California Prune Board’s television advertising campaign helped launch California prunes as a natural supplement in Japanese drugstores. In the fall, the California Prune Board conducted a display contest with rebaggers to help drugstores sell more prunes. Generic POS materials such as flags, posters and recipe/nutrition leaflets were offered to promote volume displays. Japan’s leading retailer participated in 114 outlets with drug and cosmetic sections and increased California prune sales by 330 percent from the previous year. The largest drugstore chain in western Japan increased weekly prune sales per store by over 148 percent.
These promotion results were so impressive that conventional supermarkets have followed suit. A regional chain retailer in western Japan, having 40 outlets, increased total prune sales by over 91 percent. Other stores conducting in-store sampling increased the sales per store to over 1054 percent. With this success, over 2,500 drugstores out of 13,000 outlets are selling prunes by adding value to the product beyond its price. Through the California Prune Board’s generic activities with Market Access Program funds, a new market was developed, and both consumers and traders have come to know the benefits of California prunes.
