ALEXANDRIA, USA: The USA’s Floral Board uses a two-minute video to explain its national marketing campaign in an easy way.
A committee in the USA has been working across industry segments to develop a proposal — and support — for a floral promotion order under the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. If adopted, the proposal would assess domestic growers and importers to fund a national floral marketing campaign.
In the video, the Floral Board explains why a national marketing campaign is so important and highlights what kind of marketing and promotion will be done.
The most recent draft of the floral promotion order proposes a mandatory assessment on an estimated 700 domestic growers and 500 importers whose annual gross sales are more than $100,000. Domestic growers would be assessed half of a per cent of their gross sales and importers would be assessed 1 per cent of their gross sales. The USDA would oversee the collection of assessments from domestic growers on a quarterly basis. Customs and Border Protection would collect the assessments from importers based on the value of the imported flowers and foliage at the time of entry.
Those funds are estimated to total about $19 million a year; about $15 million paid by importers and $4 million paid by domestic growers, says Christine Boldt, administrator for the promotion order and executive vice president of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida. The assessments would not fund research, because other industry organizations are already providing funding for research, Boldt says.
The money from the assessments would be used for “generic” marketing, according to the proposal. The marketing would not promote a specific flower or country of origin, and it would not advertise any specific outlet for buying flowers, Boldt says.
A board of directors, consisting of six domestic growers and six importers and appointed by the USDA’s Secretary of Agriculture, would oversee the marketing campaign.
Watch the video HERE