USDA Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) Grant Project Aims to Build Branding and Market Awareness for Midwest Hybrid Hazelnuts
Recent improvements in hazelnut genetics, harvesting technology, agronomics, and post-harvest processing capacity delivered by the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative have made hazelnut production in the Upper Midwest an economically viable option for growers. The timing is perfect as global hazelnut demand exceeds supply and the Midwestern agricultural economy is in dire need of new crops and new opportunities.
A newly awarded Local Foods Promotion Project (LFPP) grant titled, Increasing The Production, Processing, and Sale of Locally-Grown Hazelnuts in the Upper Midwest will provide a set of marketing and branding tools for existing and future hazelnut growers and hazelnut product manufacturers in the Upper Midwest. These tools will lower friction costs to bringing product to market as expansion proceeds.
This web page will be updated regularly to provide interested growers and industry contacts timely information on the progress of the project. Additionally, there will be opportunities for interested stakeholders to participate in surveys, interviews and focus groups. If you are interested in being contacted for future participation opportunities, please sign-up through the contact form at the bottom of the page.
A newly awarded Local Foods Promotion Project (LFPP) grant titled, Increasing The Production, Processing, and Sale of Locally-Grown Hazelnuts in the Upper Midwest will provide a set of marketing and branding tools for existing and future hazelnut growers and hazelnut product manufacturers in the Upper Midwest. These tools will lower friction costs to bringing product to market as expansion proceeds.
This web page will be updated regularly to provide interested growers and industry contacts timely information on the progress of the project. Additionally, there will be opportunities for interested stakeholders to participate in surveys, interviews and focus groups. If you are interested in being contacted for future participation opportunities, please sign-up through the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Grant Team
Jason Fischbach, UW-Extension
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Will Pipkin, Copy That (Ashland, WI) -- Marketing and Branding Professional
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Grant Objectives
- Gain a better understanding of hazelnut consumers and markets in the Upper Midwest.
- Create brand messages and marketing to tell the story of Midwest-grown hazelnuts.
- Better understand food businesses interests and barriers to using hazelnuts as ingredients.
- Develop a comprehensive brand and marketing program as a means to increase sales of Midwest-grown hazelnuts.
Seeking - Citizen Researchers
We need your help! There is a lot of good information on hazelnuts out there and we'd like to enlist your help in finding and archiving news articles, research publications, websites and other related resources you come across. We are particularly interested in gathering information on the following topics:
Find something interesting? Click here and enter in your discovery
- COSMETICS: Uses of oils in cosmetics: products, volume, price points, organic vs conventional, special properties, etc.
- LOCAL FOODS: Current and future demand, which customers value local, what is driving the movement toward locally produced ingredients, etc.
- BY-PRODUCTS: What are the possibilities for hazelnut shells and husks? What is already out on the market? Who is marketing them?
Find something interesting? Click here and enter in your discovery
March 5, 2022 Hazelnut Conference Branding Session
At the 2022 Upper Midwest Hazelnut Growers Conference we hosted a marketing and branding session to better understand how hazelnut growers themselves think about hazelnuts and what they want their customers to know about hazelnuts. What they said is in the following documents.
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