Florida Sweet Corn Crop Captures Record Finish
June 5, 2013 
After a slow start to the spring deal following early March freezes, May ended up being a record month for Florida sweet corn. Shipments for the month are up more than 27% from average May volume during the previous two years. The record weeks have been in spite of colder spring weather in northern states, a factor often cited by retailers as the greatest influencer on sales.
There are a number of factors that have contributed to this success. The development of the Sunshine Sweet brand has provided retailers with consistently superior quality throughout the spring, and innovative promotional offerings provide members greater flexibility in developing impactful programs with their customers.
According to Mike Aerts, director of the marketing and membership division at the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, this success has been built through member efforts. “The fancy grade seed varieties that growers have selected for the Sunshine Sweet brand and the quality assurances that handlers have implemented has provided buyers with an easily identifiable source for great tasting spring corn. Now we are working to make that brand more visible to consumers.”
An aggressive PR and advertising campaign helped drive demand. Communications have been focused on positioning Sunshine Sweet Corn as a sought after vegetable of spring, with recipes and imaging that move consumers beyond traditional views of corn as a summer-time tradition. Combined with a first-ever Pinterest contest, ongoing optimized online search efforts and blogger media outreach, traffic to Sunshinesweetcorn.com is up more than 2000% from the previous year.
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