Pennington Quality Market Wins First Prize in New Jersey Peach Promotion Council Display Contest

Mike Oliver, the produce manager for Pennington Quality Market, Pennington, N.J., was awarded first prize from the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council (PPC) for his Jersey-Fresh Peach display. The display contest was a first for the PPC, designed to get stores involved in marketing locally grown New Jersey peaches. [caption id="attachment_4262" align="alignright" width="319" caption="Pegi Adam, spokesperson for New Jersey Peach Promotion Council, presents the first-prize $500 check to Mike Oliver, produce manager of Pennington Quality Market, for winning the 2011 Jersey Peach Display Contest."][/caption] Oliver ran his peach display from the first week in August through Labor Day weekend. He made his own Jersey-Fresh sign and displayed peach box labels from Jersey growers. He also put Peach Promotion Council brochures with recipes on an adjacent table. "We had an excellent Jersey peach season," says Oliver, who has worked for Pennington Quality Market since 1988. "Customer demand and selling ran through mid/late-September and we sold all we could get.  Pennington Quality Market's owner, Mike Rothwell, encourages us to be as creative as we can in setting up displays and entering contests." Launched in May, 2011 with the mailing of the PPC's "Buyers Guide" to grocery stores, shippers and brokers, the display contest was designed to involve the food industry in the New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania region with raising the public profile of "summer's favorite fruit" locally grown, shipped to markets within 24 hours of picking and available from early/mid-July through mid-September. In his congratulatory letter, Maccherone says, "Your exhibit was lovely to look at and obviously carefully executed—just what the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council hoped for in launching our Grocery Store Display Contest. We are proud to award you our First Prize.  And, we hope you will continue to promote our locally grown peaches. Your efforts will ensure that our peach industry survives and thrives in New Jersey." New Jersey is the fourth largest peach grower in the country.  Local peaches come from 90 orchards in 100 different varieties—yellow, white, donut (flat, round) and nectarines. For further information, visit www.jerseypeaches.com.