Thanks to a new specialty crop block grant, the PIE Center will be able to better understand and influence the local positioning of specialty crops.
The PIE Center secured the specialty crop block grant to continue its research in how to increase sales, marketability and consumption of specialty crops throughout Florida.
The PIE Center received its first specialty crop block grant focused on local food in January 2011. The initial research, which will wrap up in April, examines Florida consumers’ attitudes and perceptions toward local food.
“We’re finding that a lot of consumers’ purchasing habits are based on convenience, so we have to do a lot more work on our end to figure out how we can position products and communicate about them in a way that resonates,” said Joy Rumble, PIE Center researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Education.
With the newly awarded grant, which started in January, researchers will build off of the previous findings to identify specific advertising messages and media strategies for effectively marketing specialty crops.
“The idea behind this study is to take the initial research a step further by developing a solid message to promote specialty crops as well as determining the most effective media channel to promote specialty crops,” Rumble said.
In March, the PIE Center will conduct focus groups to identify messages and consumers’ preferred media channels for receiving information about food grown in Florida. Researchers will also conduct an online survey to further refine the results.
“The research will hopefully pinpoint the opportunities our stakeholders can take advantage of,” Rumble said.
The first year of the grant will primarily be devoted to conducting further research, while the second year will be focused on outreach and dissemination.
“We’ll design workshops, trainings and maybe even a tool targeted toward producers, communicators and commodity organizations so they can implement some of these strategies and increase consumers’ intent to buy,” Rumble said.
Involved in the project since its inception, Rumble has two primary goals concerning the grant: first, to promote effective strategies and messages for Florida specialty crop producers and to increase consumers’ intentions to buy these crops.
“We’re continuing to learn a lot about how people form attitudes and behavioral intent around food in general,” Rumble said. “Many times, consumers get their information about food and agriculture from non-agricultural sources.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to work toward putting all those puzzle pieces together and figuring out how we can work together to deliver a consistent message that can benefit Floridians.”
The two-year grant partnership with Florida Specialty Crop Foundation will conclude in December 2015. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services fund the grants. For more information on the initial research, visit https://piecenter.com/local/
