Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/123862
proposal. Pepperl believes generic promotions are a thing of the past because they reduce participants to the lowest common denominator. Though the "Got milk" campaign got consumers' attention, it has not resulted in a profitable milk industry, he pointed out. "The most successful produce companies are those that have got out of the commodity world and are promoting themselves and their own brands," Pepperl said. "A checkoff might have been something for 30 years ago." Pepperl said demand for organic fruit has been nicely balanced with supply. The market has been expanding, and growers who are doing a good job have been receiving nice returns. Marketers have been successful promoting their own organic fruit and don't want to promote their neighbors' fruit. "We have our own marketing program. We have a marketing budget and we have a sales team, and we're here to promote our brand and promote our growers' produce," he said. "No one can do it better than we can with our customers." As far as educating consumers about what organic really means, Pepperl said there are misperceptions, but anyone can easily find information on the Internet. "It's not that we can't find out," he said. "It's that we don't really care." • Gwendolyn Wyard should be on promotions and explaining to consumers what organic food is. Asked about the cost of running an organic marketing order, Wyard said that was still unknown. Afterwards, Dain Craver, an organic tree fruit grower at Royal City, Washington, told Good Fruit Grower that he felt a national organic promotion was a good idea but he could not see how it could work, since producers of different commodities have their own way of doing things. But Craver is in favor of promotions. He misses the Washington Apple Commission's generic promotions on the domestic market, which ended almost a decade ago when the mandatory assessment on Washington apples was challenged in court. Individual warehouses have stepped in to promote their own brands, but there are no longer large-scale apple promotions with television commercials like there are for other commodities, such as milk. Craver has been a member of the Organic Trade Association for several years, but is not actively involved. He perceives that it has become an organization that represents corporate interests, which is different from how it began in 1985. "I think it started with the little guys, and we were all part of the start of it, but it merged into the East Coast big corporations," he said. "A few years ago, I thought they got a little pushy with their fundraising." That's not necessarily a bad thing, he added, because it means the association has enough financial backing to lobby on behalf of the organic industry, and it's not done anything detrimental to organic producers. Stemilt Growers, Inc., Wenatchee, is also an OTA member, but marketing director Roger Pepperl sees the association a little differently. He describes it as a grass-roots organization that takes from the rich (big companies) to give to the poor (small growers), so small producers can become bigger. Stemilt is not in favor of the checkoff www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER May 1, 2013 19