A U.S. importer is making the most of Sesame Street's 'Eat Brighter!' campaign to promote fruits and vegetables to kids, with the first lot of Chinese pears boasting the label set to arrive before Thanksgiving. 

During last week's Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fruittrade Latin America event in Santiago last week, I Love Produce president Jim Provost told www.freshfruitportal.com the first shipment had taken off from Qingdao and would arrive in New York within around two weeks.

"The purpose of the 'Eat Brighter!' campaign is to get people in the United States and Canada interested in eating more fruits and vegetables, which is a good thing for the industry and people's health," Provost said.

"So we thought it'd be a logical choice to offer Asian pears – something sweet and juicy that kid’s would like – and coordinate that together with the 'Eat Brighter!' campaign."

He said the protocol for Chinese pears was opened last year and I Love Produce ran a "small but successful" campaign.

"The pears are traditionally in clamshells with three large pears in the package, and also in single layer boxes that are almost in a gift-giving style in Asian cultures. So we applied Sesame Street artwork to both packaging.

"We feel that this will increase the usage of pears, both in the traditional American supermarkets and in the Asian supermarkets in the United States.

"There is interest in the American supermarkets in the Asian pears, and they do carry them on a more limited basis, but we’re hoping with this campaign that they’ll see the value-added aspects of it and look to bring them in.

www.freshfruitportal.com