This past July and early August, we continued to experience the influence of Mother Nature. Each year, we start our blueberry planning months in advance of the season and work closely with our retail partners to set promotions to coincide with our estimated timing, balanced with our historical timing.
Who knew that we’d have a record cool spring and then a wet summer in our primary growing regions in Oregon? 2011 represented the latest start for cane berries in 40 years. Typically July averages .72″ of rain while this year we received .93″ for the month and .75″ on July 17th alone. During our peak production period we were actually rained out 4 of 6 days. 4 out of 6 days! Months of planning, ads set and we don’t have near the product to pack that we expected. We fight through it as we all do because it is agriculture. We communicate with our partners and adjust the plan, but the consumer typically doesn’t understand. They show up to the store, want blueberries and expect them to be there.
It does get frustrating at time. As growers, we know when the ads are set and what we’ve given as our projections. As marketers, we’ve met with accounts and maximized a season long ad plan, scheduling the most aggressive promotions during the largest peaks. As retailers, you’ve trusted our information on blueberries and set-up promotions. Then the big week comes and there’s a weather event and everyone’s scrambling to live up to their particular commitment.
In today’s economy, everyone is looking for that edge that gets more consumers in their stores. This year, we’ve seen an abundance of the tried and true ‘loss leader’ promotions across a multitude of items. These loss leaders often draw people to the stores looking for the great buy and the hope is they stay and shop for more than those items. Several retailers this year wanted to own the category in their region and advertised aggressively for weeks at a time. Loss leader promotions do drive sales volumes and traffic; they can also create a shortage and tight product – a phenomenon we saw in cherries this season. Similar to blueberries, I know the cherry market was delayed this season due to weather. A handful of chains ran loss leader and/or aggressive retail prices and it created a vacuum for the cherry industry trying to cover all the ads that were out there. When these promotions were done, and pricing returned to normal ad levels, the overall pull slowed down and what was once a tight market turned a bit loose without the national ads pulling. The overall timing was just a bit off and helped create a softer market.
Blueberries tend to be regionally produced and promoted during the U.S. domestic season. Numerous states grow blueberries and typically the Northeast is covered by East coast growers, the Midwest by Midwest growers and the West coast by West coast growers. 2011 has been unique – weather this year allowed us to ship nationwide. New Jersey was very early; they experienced hot, wet weather and finished earlier than anticipated. We were late in the Northwest. Michigan was late and experienced rains during the season further delaying the timing. At one point, the Northwest was practically the only growing region to supply the U.S. Western Canada was also very late this year and they’ve experienced rain as well. It’s simply another point to show that once you have your produce season planned, you better have options A-B-C and D in your back pocket. Something changes every season. It’s the nimble companies who think in solutions vs. panic that pay the best dividends during these times. You have likely done business with the same companies for years and in some instances decades. You trust the companies and know they’ll do everything in their power to make sure they’re meeting your needs. Sure, there’ll be days when you want to pull each other’s hair out. But, at the end of each season, you hope you have your follow up meeting and say, “Wow, we overcame this challenge during this week or so of the season, but for the majority of the plan we were pretty close to target!”
