Greetings Mango Industry,

As you may be aware, this will be my last season at the National Mango Board. My employment agreement ends December 31, 2014, and I have elected not to pursue an extension.

Consumer outreach in 2014 is off to a strong start. We helped promote the Disney’s The Jungle Book – available for the first time on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and Digital HD but blew our first quarter goals out of the water with strong national print media coverage in popular magazines. Our relationships with top magazine editors continue to pay off.

You read about our successful quarter one Nutrition Program outreach in the March edition of the Mango Connection and now the results are in! Our partnership with Frances Largeman-Roth and her new book Eating in Color, including a satellite and internet media tour, book launch party with top media and a Twitter Party, in addition to other promotions led to nearly 47 million impressions.

During Q1 2014, 36 retailers across the country committed to NMB-funded promotions. So far, 14 of those have provided their proof of performance, and are listed on the first retail report of 2014. With these early promotions, we have impacted 3,024 stores and conducted 189 mango demo events.

Each year, we partner with Nielsen-Perishables Group to publish the Mango Performance Benchmark Report. This report compares 2013 mango performance at retail to the 2012 results.

We have just launched a brand new email newsletter specifically for retailers.  Each month, the newsletter will include tips to help sell more mangos at the store level, and strategic thinking to help buyers and category managers plan for success in their mango business.

There’s nothing like being exactly a quarter of the way to a goal at the end of Q1 to know a program is on track!  In Q1, 2014 we garnered 2,282,701 impressions towards our goal of 8,870,000.

The produce trade media have always been enticed by our mango stories and our results prove it for our Trade Media Program, with 1.8 million impressions for Quarter 1, 2014. We have a lot of exciting things happening and we are happy the produce industry is taking note. 

If you missed our Mango Ripening Webinar for retailers and importers, don’t worry. Our free webinar is now available on our website for viewing.

The nominations process for new board members is moving forward right on schedule. The positions currently open for nominations include three importers from District II, one domestic producer and two foreign producers.