What better way to teach consumers about kiwifruit than to show them a kiwifruit vineyard and introduce them to a real kiwifruit farmer? That is exactly what the California Kiwifruit Commission is doing this month by way of a YouTube video designed to increase consumer purchases of kiwifruit by teaching people how to select, store and ripen kiwifruit.
"January is a very big month for California kiwifruit sales with ample supplies in storage and eating quality at its peak," said Chris Zanobini, President of the California Kiwifruit Commission. "We find that consumers are still a bit unfamiliar with our product. So, we developed a quick and fun way to distribute information on kiwifruit to consumers through one of the most popular sites on the Internet --YouTube."
According to Zanobini, the video which is just over 4 minutes long, features a real California kiwifruit grower, shows viewers exactly what a kiwifruit vineyard looks like and provides a bit of background on this somewhat curious fruit. The video then quickly moves into very useful information about how to select kiwifruit, how to ripen it and, most importantly, how to eat kiwifruit.
"We want people to know that underneath the fuzzy, brown exterior of a kiwifruit they will find sweet, green goodness," said Zanobini. "We also want them to know that eating kiwifruit is much easier than you might think -- especially if you use a technique we call 'slooping.'
Slooping, explains Zanobini, involves slicing the kiwifruit in half and then scooping out the delicious green flesh with a spoon. People can also order a free kiwifruit 'slooper' -- a plastic utensil developed especially for eating kiwifruit with a knife at one end and a spoon on the other.
"The sloopers are available free of charge to any consumer who visits our website and orders one," said Zanobini. "It's a fun, somewhat gimmicky way of teaching people how easy it is to eat kiwifruit and making the fruit more approachable."
Demonstrating the "slooping" technique on film along with some impressive kiwifruit juggling is California kiwifruit grower Jerry Kliewer from Reedley, CA, who is one of the 300 kiwifruit farmers in California who produce kiwifruit on an average farm size of just 13 acres. The friendly face of this real kiwifruit farmer should be a hit with consumers. To make sure consumers have a chance to meet Kliewer, the California Kiwifruit Commission, has distributed the video to 1200 food editors and Internet bloggers and is also posting the video and additional information about kiwifruit on a distribution service for food editors of both on-line and print publications.
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