Educating Farmers and Consumers About the Culture and Benefits of Jujubes, A Traditional Fruit Crop

 Project Site: The Research portion of this project is taking place mostly online, using Facebook for information and discussions, RFR's website for information dissemination, and frequent communication with customers via RFRs extensive 5,000-customer e-mail list.

Much of the fulfillment of this project will take place in classrooms through the Central California area, with Ms. Taff providing education on growing and marketing jujubes to a variety of students, including socially disadvantaged beginning farmers.

Rock Front Ranch is doing on-site research at the ranch on different varieties of jujubes and presenting  marketing workshops for producers with an emphasis on using the nutrient content of jujubes in marketing efforts.

Research Design: Research is carefully designed to build on previous efforts by RFR to engage customers by posting and e-mailing articles and scientific studies that relate to perceived positive health effects of adding fresh and dried jujubes to the diet. 

There has been extensive research on the health benefits of jujubes in recent years, mostly in China and Korea. RFR will build on this research to provide input on marketing jujubes in the US. 

Research will include identifying the nutrient content of jujubes and correlating the nutrients with accepted health benefits (e.g., calcium for strong bones and teeth).

RFR will use its own records, found in Quick Books, to track customer response by comparing sales month over month and year over year.

Data Collection: Data collection will be the responsibility of Nancy Smith. She will use extensive customer data in  Quick Books, customer responses on Facebook and Instagram, personal contact with producers via telephone and e-mail as well as student feedback in an effort to collect as much meaningful marketing data as possible.

Methods of Analysis: Month over month and year over year comparisons using sales records; customer surveys; producer surveys will provide an accurate method of analysis of changes in marketing results in response to the proposed change in emphasis in RFR's marketing campaign.

Awareness of Previous Work: We carefully researched 17 previous scientific studies on the health properties of jujubes as well as referring to the USDA table of Jujube Nutrients. We studied previous SARE projects to find points of similarity with them. SARE Project LS23-382, although not specific to jujube marketing or nutrient analysis, did provide inspiration to us by its study of  consumers' relationship with food, including an increased interest in prioritizing healthy foods and foods grown in ways that support the planet. That project also supported farmers to understand consumer values and in turn provide effective communication. It called for research to better understand barriers and values and across consumers and studied variations in how consumers respond to educational and promotional materials. We believe our proposed project addresses the need identified by Project LS23-382.

Tools and Materials:

The primary marketing tools and materials at RFR are ads and posters on our website, Facebook page, Instagram page and our extensive 5,000-customer list.

The primary source for marketing information is our Quick Books account, which lists all orders, all customers, what they ordered and when. This provides an excellent source for comparison of month over month and year over year sales and income. 

WSARE surveys will be used as a tool to gauge producer responses.

Measurement and Evaluation:

The primary measurement of response to the project will be found on the insights page of Meta Suite, the Facebook and Instagram page that analyzes response to posts. Surveys will be performed by conversations with students and WSARE survey forms.

Quick Books tracks sales per customer, and the success of the program will be measured by the increase in sales.

How will research be conducted in an innovative way or provide an innovative approach to solving the problem?

The most innovative quality of the research is that jujubes are, in themselves, an innovative crop in the United States. Research will include examining seventeen scientific studies that were performed in other countries, mostly China, and comparing these studies to information found in US studies. The resulting data will be used in RFRs proposed marketing campaign.

This research will be bolstered by anecdotal accounts from our customers on their observations of changes in their health after adding jujubes to their diets.

It is clear that Chinese scientists have long recognized the value of jujubes as a nutritious food, and have devoted a great deal of effort to study the benefits of jujubes in the diet. Jujubes have a 3,000-year history in China, which clearly shows the importance of the fruit in that country. Consumers in the US are just beginning to show an interest in jujubes, often driven by demand from Asian immigrants who consider them to be an important part of their diet. This project would help enable the US to place more emphasis on a crop that is both nutritious and helpful to the planet. 

Using the many tools provided by online platforms provides an innovative way to track data, communicate with customers, and disseminate results. Meta Suite and Facebook Insights provide tools for analysis that are very helpful when used in an organized manner.