Progressive Grocer Honors Chiquita with 2023 Category Captain Award
Chiquita continues as the banana category leader for over two decades
Fort Lauderdale, FL – December 27, 2023 – Year over year, leading grocery publication Progressive Grocer recognizes overall excellence in innovative, profit-generating category management efforts that help retailers grow sales and profits while satisfying shoppers through its Category Captain Awards. Proving the brand’s commitment to providing the highest quality bananas to consumers across the world, Chiquita is proud to be named a 2023 Category Captain for the 24th consecutive year.
"Every year, our editorial team is proud to honor Chiquita as a Category Campaign due to the brand’s commitment to innovative category management efforts, particularly its sustainable products and practices from this past year including the Yelloway Initiative and Hard Green Bananas," said Gina Acosta, Editor-in-Chief of Progressive Grocer.
"Chiquita is thrilled to receive this esteemed recognition as a frontrunner in the produce and grocery industry for well over twenty years," expressed Jamie Postell, Vice President of Sales North America at Chiquita. "Our focus at Chiquita has always been on fostering category growth by consistently offering innovative programs and insights, coupled with our unwavering commitment to delivering top-quality products to our customers. This ongoing accolade is a testament to our company's exceptional performance, and we are excited to continue growing and improving our efforts even further."
This year, Chiquita led in category innovation across the consumer market spectrum by launching a joint venture to research and develop a disease-resistant banana, driving new banana consumption moments through an educational time-of-day focused recipe campaign, as well as introducing a new highly versatile green banana product that has a longer shelf life and can be used as a plantain alternative.
Sustainable Solutions: Disease-Resistant Bananas
In collaboration with KeyGene, MusaRadix, and Wageningen University and Research, Chiquita launched the groundbreaking Yelloway initiative, with the goal of producing bananas that are resistant to both pathogenic diseases and environmental threats, while also reducing carbon emissions. The initiative follows four pathways: genome mapping, plant breeding, laboratory testing and field testing.
Thus far, Yelloway has allowed Chiquita and its research partners to create a family tree of banana diversity based on more than 160 banana types, leading to 150 successful crosses, totaling 32,000 seeds. New varieties of bananas are being developed, some with resistance to certain diseases. The ultimate goal is to produce three new resistant varieties that look, feel, taste and store like the Cavendish banana with which consumers are long familiar.
Creative Campaigns: It’s Chiquita O’Clock
To position Chiquita as more than just a "breakfast food" or an on-the-go snack, Chiquita created the "It's Chiquita O'Clock" Campaign to highlight the use cases of bananas throughout the day. The campaign gave consumers more reasons to buy Chiquita Bananas by providing new and trending recipe ideas to be used for breakfast, as midday snacks, as well as dessert. From April 1st through June 30th, consumers were prompted to scan a QR code on the Chiquita Banana’s sticker or in-store signage at select US retailers, which unlocked six new and unexpected recipes.
This campaign garnered impressive results through a robust set of tactics that included Meta, TikTok, Display and PR. Chiquita also offered consumers the chance to enter to win one of three Cuisinart kitchen appliances and activated food influencers to help promote the various consumption moments through Chiquita-inspired recipe content. The campaign generated more than 135 million impressions, with influencer activation generating an additional 22 million impressions.
History and Heritage: It Peels So Good
In an effort to reinforce Chiquita’s leadership role in the banana category while emphasizing its premium quality, delicious taste, distinctive personality and iconic heritage, the brand introduced “It Peels So Good.” The campaign debuted in a variety of media formats, including social media content and immersive out-of-home billboards in key tourist sites across the globe.
Additionally, the campaign launched special video formats for digital media that displayed a selection of vintage advertising campaigns exploring the brand’s rich heritage through its famous branded assets.
Innovative Alternatives: Hard Green Bananas
As a way to drive innovation for both Chiquita and the banana category, the brand launched Hard Green Bananas as a more affordable alternative to plantains, which are typically cooked and added to recipes. Chiquita aimed to educate consumers on the benefits of Hard Green Bananas, which are more versatile, have a longer shelf life, and are a healthy source of complex carbohydrates and fiber.
The campaign consisted of digital and social creative in various languages targeting specific U.S. audiences to highlight the new product and its use cases. The eight-week campaign ran on Meta and generated 42 million-plus impressions.
For more information, please visit www.chiquitabrands.com.
Please see a hi-res image here.
Contact: Victoria Jordan, vjordan@coynepr.com, 212.324.0806
About Chiquita Brands International
Chiquita is a leading global produce company that is committed to providing both consumers and customers across nearly 70 countries with the highest quality of fruit and service, making Chiquita the banana of choice. For more than 150 years, Chiquita has been proudly producing great-tasting, superior quality bananas. The brand creates a positive impact by implementing the principles of sustainability throughout all of its business practices under the “Behind the Blue Sticker” initiative. Chiquita’s iconic Blue Sticker has been the seal of approval for high-quality fruit, and a celebration of fun, but it also represents an unwavering commitment to sustainable farming, biodiversity and giving back to the communities in which the banana plantations operate. Great-tasting and convenient Chiquita bananas are fat-free, and provide a source of potassium, fiber and vitamin B6. To learn more, visit www.chiquita.com.
