About 200 Portuguese and Spanish growers and the seed company Sakata came together to launch Love Butternut, an initiative to promote the pumpkin in Portugal and Spain.
To encourage responsible consumption, Love Butternut promoters will offer pumpkins in two schools in the Santarém and Lourinhã region and challenge students to decorate this vegetable without having to damage it.
Love Butternut is officially launched in Portugal through a joint marketing strategy that aims to show the gastronomic versatility and nutritional benefits of this food. The mission of Love Butternut, which counts on the participation of the main pumpkin producers in Portugal, is to stimulate consumption, which today is less than one kilo per capita.
The campaign’s motto is “You love me? Give me pumpkins!” and intends to emphasize the benefits of pumpkin for health and well-being. Traditionally used in creams, soups and some desserts, pumpkin can be an ingredient in juices or even beauty products. The number of new pumpkin-based products is increasing in Europe where, since 2016, more than 500 new innovations have been launched.
Recipes, advice on how to prepare, peel and cook the pumpkin, nutritional information or trivia are some of the contents of the campaign, which will be visible on digital platforms, social networks, events and point of sale.
Portugal is the third largest pumpkin producer in Europe, just behind France and Spain (first). Per capita consumption is the same as in Spain. This means that we are a long way from the real champions in pumpkin consumption: Argentina, where each inhabitant consumes 9.5 kilos per year, and Colombia, with 7.6 kilos. If we travel to Brazil, there are 4.2 kilos of pumpkin per capita, almost twice as much as in the United States (2.9 kilos per capita). Italians eat 1.1 kilos a year.
