Press Release Provided by California Walnuts
Through strategically diversifying into sectors like retail, food manufacturing/industrial and foodservice, our export and domestic marketing activities are designed to expand California walnuts usage and consumption in existing markets and identify markets for future development. These programs, through brand partnerships and in-store activations, also help raise awareness for California walnuts to all audiences.
During the pandemic, the retail category has remained strong across domestic and export markets as consumers do more cooking and baking at home and are consuming more foods that support wellness. In the 2019/20 crop year, retail sales increased by 5.1% in domestic markets and increased 15.4% since the start of the pandemic (March 2020).
Germany remained the industry’s leading export destination with shipments rebounding during the 2019/20 crop season, demonstrating a 22.5% growth over the past four years predominantly through retail.
In Spain, walnuts have remained the #1 selling nut at retail, posting strong gains during the 8 weeks of lockdown according to IRI data.
An e-commerce campaign in the US with Instacart, Amazon, Albertsons/Safeway, Ahold and Kroger has generated over $800,000 in attributed sales with over 100,000 units sold.
Our mission is to make walnuts the desired and preferred choice for consumers and the ingredient of choice for food manufacturers and foodservice operators.
Golden Walnut Sweepstakes
As part of our domestic marketing efforts, we created the Golden Walnut Sweepstakes to push California walnuts within and outside of the baking aisle as we approach the holiday season. Consumers are encouraged to submit a store receipt showing a walnut purchase through the contest page for a chance to win the virtual “Golden Walnut” and a share of $15,000. Entries will be accepted starting November 16 through December 20, 2020.
The Golden Walnut Sweepstakes was first launched in 2018 to kick-start the new crop year, and the program has boosted holiday sales of California walnuts since. Last year’s campaign resulted in over 33,000 entries, which was a 20% increase over the prior year’s entries. Digital advertising for the sweepstakes served to drive significant traffic to walnuts.org throughout the national campaign.
