Colorado has tapped a Golden-based agency for a six-figure pact aimed to restore confidence in the Rocky Ford cantaloupe, the popular variety of the fruit which took an image hit last fall after a deadly listeria outbreak.
BrandWerks Group, which specializes in marketing communications and branding for the food sector, emerged this week from an April RFP process that drew 13 responses for a year-long contract worth $100K. The firm was hired earlier this year to conduct research on the outbreak’s impact.
The outbreak, which killed more than 30 people, caught the relatively small $9M-a-year Rocky Ford cantaloupe sector off guard, but has sparked a series of reforms toward food safety, marketing and PR among growers in the newly formed Rocky Ford Growers Association and the state.
The crisis was traced to Jensen Farms, a Granada, Colo., grower which is actually 90 miles east of Rocky Ford, Colo. But widespread media coverage affected consumption of the fruit nationally and the outbreak's impact was felt among growers in top-producing states like California and Arizona.
"We all took a blow, and we're all standing together," state Agriculture Commissioner John Salazar told the Denver Post in late April. "These farmers have done it for themselves."