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Florida Tomato Growers Kick off Season with Culinary Art Contest
MAITLAND, Fla.-(Business Wire)-September 5, 2008 - This fall, the Florida tomato growers will conduct a 15 market tomato art contest and tour to kick off the 2008 season and reintroduce America’s most popular tomato, the Florida field-grown tomato, to consumers throughout the Eastern United States. The Florida Tomato Culinary Art Tour will bring a tomato art exhibit and mini tomato festival to major food retailers and food service operators to showcase the beauty, exquisite taste and nutritional benefits of Florida grown tomatoes. Local celebrity chefs and art contest winners will be in each market as well doing what they do best – cooking with and painting tomatoes.
The Florida Tomato Committee is launching its Florida Tomato Culinary Art Tour in an effort to restore consumer confidence in tomatoes after the Salmonella scare over the summer where tomatoes were initially suspect, but then FDA lab tests later confirmed other sources. As part of the tour, consumers will be educated about measures Florida tomato growers have instituted to ensure the safety of Florida field-grown tomatoes, including new packing and sanitation practices.
The Tour will also allow the Florida tomato growers to directly reach and get involved with consumers in key markets via sampling, exhibitions and local publicity.
In addition to the Tour, the Committee has launched an aggressive 15 media market campaign plan incorporating public relations and radio and print advertising. The print advertising effort includes half-page advertisements in Parade Magazine – which will be distributed to 62 newspapers throughout the Eastern United States – with messaging that supports Florida tomato growers long-standing commitment and dedication to providing generations of families’ tables with quality, flavorful tomatoes grown in the rich, fertile soils of Florida. Florida tomato growers will also provide partnering grocery retailers with free 20-second tags on radio spots in each market — 770 radio spots delivering 6.2 million listeners. Along the tour, print and broadcast media in each market will be visited with tomato cooking ideas, information and interviews with growers and packers, as well as … tomatoes, of course.
Target media markets include: Portland (ME), Boston, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Greenville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami.
For the art contest, a panel of influencers will select 15 winners, each from different cities. Each winner will receive $1,000 and qualify to win a Grand Prize of $2,000. The winning art will be auctioned to benefit the Produce for Better Health Foundation.
For more information on The Florida Tomato Culinary Art Tour and art contest, including contest rules, please visit: www.floridatomatoart.com. Food retailers wanting to get involved in The Florida Tomato Culinary Art Tour, please contact: Samantha Winters at Samantha@floridatomatoes.org.
About Florida Tomatoes and the Florida Tomato Committee
Fresh, Florida field-grown tomatoes are the premiere tomatoes of America. Grown throughout Florida's rich farmland, these prides of the south gems are field-grown for freshness, flavor, firmness and texture.
The Florida Tomato marketing order regulates the handling of tomatoes grown in Florida, and is administered locally by the Florida Tomato Committee (Committee). The Committee consists of twelve members and twelve alternates who are all tomato growers in Central and South Florida and are appointed each year by the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture. Under the order, the Committee establishes and enforces quality and packing standards on Florida fresh market tomatoes. It also supports research and education and conducts a well-rounded education and promotion plan designed to increase per capita consumption of fresh Florida tomatoes.
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