Bumper harvest prompts Colombian supplier Ocati to launch a UK campaign championing purple passion fruit’s fibre content and flavour
Colombian grower-exporter Ocati has said that it is looking to boost the consumption of purple passion fruit in the UK through a new marketing campaign.
“This season’s harvest has given us more fruit than we typically see,” said Daniela Manjarres, sales, logistics and marketing Manager at Ocati.
”Rather than treat that as a challenge, we saw an opportunity to put purple passion fruit in front of a UK audience that is only just discovering it.
“Passion fruit is already familiar here, but the purple one specifically, with its distinct sweetness and nutritional profile, incredibly high in fibre, has plenty of room to grow,” she noted.
Ocati’s campaign combines product sampling, partnerships with health-focused food content creators, as well as a competition offering the winning creator a trip to Colombia to see the fruit’s origins firsthand.
“We are very excited about this campaign and hope to replicate it soon in other European markets,” Manjarres continued.
”Europeans are becoming more concerned about their health and choose foods based on their properties. In this context, purple passion fruit has lots of potential.”
The campaign highlights the purple passion fruit’s nutritional value – in particular its high fibre content – its sweetness, and versatility.
The company explained that its passion fruit business has grown steadily year-on-year, built on an expanding network of more than 600 growers across Colombia’s key producing regions.
Ocati supports these growers with a dedicated team of agronomists who provide training, technical assistance and, in some cases, financial support for new growing projects.
Europe is the group’s largest export market for purple passion fruit, offering availability year-round.
“We want to keep consolidating our position as an international reference for passion fruit,” said Manjarres.
“In the UK and across Europe, there is still a lot of work to do to help consumers understand how versatile purple passion fruit is and what it offers nutritionally – particularly around fibre, which we believe is one of its strongest, most under-communicated attributes.
”Our goal isn’t only to grow sales, but to grow the category itself, and to build a higher frequency of consumption over time,” she added.
