If I hadn’t been having so much sinus trouble this winter I would have passed this by but somehow the idea of hot peppers and a sinus spray just grabbed my attention. I would be seriously afraid to try Sinusbuster. Sometimes you wonder what’s worse, the cure or the disease.
When “Sinus Buster” hot pepper nasal spray was first introduced to Canadian consumers in mid 2005, it became an instant hit. Within 6 months, Sinus Buster went from retail obscurity to being featured on the shelves of more than 300 stores throughout Canada. SiCap Industries, the company that manufactures Sinus Buster claims their unique product is well on its way to becoming the number one sinus & headache product in Canada.
Here’s the part that I thought was most interesting though.
SiCap also credits a combination of major media exposure and radio commercials running on Sirius Satellite for the incredible growth of Sinus Buster throughout North America. “We got featured in “First” magazine for women, and then we started running the Sirius radio spots. We got immediate results here in the states, but as soon as Canada began allowing airplay of the Stern 100 channel on Sirius, we saw a huge spike in Canadian sales. There’s no doubt Canadians are listening to Howard Stern and Sirius in large numbers. Our Canadian distributor gets calls everyday from new retailers who heard about Sinus Buster on Sirius,” Perry adds.
You can watch their first tv commercial here.
A March Meaty March
After just finishing a Quiznos salad that must have contained about a pound of roast beef and bacon I was very happy to see the Colman’s Mustard, Meatylicious March website, (thank you Chroma, via AdJab).
Visitors can register for the march or they can look at places already visited on the march like, Guild of Q Butchers or Hats of Meat. This is virtual marketing at its finest in my opinion.
You can find things you need to know like the “Meatyfesto” which contains profound sayings like, “Four legs good. Two legs chicken (also good).” You’ll have to visit to enjoy it all for yourself
Final Call To Enter Video iPod Contest
This is your final reminder to get your entry in for the New Holland “Down on the Farm” Classic iPod Keepsake Contest. It’s easy and the odds are better than the lottery. We’ve had a lot of entries so far but you’ve still got until the end of the day March 15. Don’t wait.
We have the iPod and it’s loaded and ready to find a new owner. On it the winner will get the video of Michael Peterson’s performance at Commodity Classic, his new CD, all the pictures I took at Classic and the interviews and speeches I recorded. It comes out of the box ready to entertain and inform!
Go ahead, enter. Do it. You might be glad you did.
ZimmComm 2 Years Old On The ZimmCast
ZimmComm New Media is 2 years old! Praise the Lord. Hard to believe. This week’s ZimmCast is a Chuck & Cindy summary of where the company is and where it’s going. We review why we changed our name to include “New Media” and talk about some of our blogging and podcasting projects.
Before you listen you need to know that I decided to test out a conference type microphone. It works great but really isn’t meant for what I used it for this week. So you’ll hear CJ the office dog a couple of times try to get into the act.
You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 
(16 min MP3)
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar.
You can also now find the ZimmCast on CoolCast Radio or subscribe in iTunes.
Animal Industry Corn Users Suggest Lower Duties on US Corn Justified
In my opinion is we need to lay this puppy to rest. Having Canadian corn users fighting with grain corn producers makes no sense at all, especially when it doesn’t really matter to the Americans. Lawyers representing the Animal Industry Corn Users suggest, if the Canada Border Services Agency follows its own guidelines, duties on U.S. corn entering Canada will be reduced substantially when it announces final subsidy and dumping determinations March 15.
Investigations into complaints from Canadian corn growers alleging harm from subsidized US grain corn dumped into Canada, the CBSA imposed provisional antidumping and countervailing duties totalling $1.65 U.S. per bushel imported unprocessed U.S. grain corn. Lawyer Peter Clark suggests inflated figures were used to set those duties. “They added in margins of things like 40 and 50 cents a bushel at the elevator when all of the economic literature says its 10 or 11 cents,” said Clark. “They indicated the corn had to be delivered, at the elevator’s cost, from the farmers’ fields on average a hundred miles when we know that in the U.S., an elevator will tend to draw, on average within a 20 mile radius of the elevator and in fact most of it is within eight to 14 miles.”
Clark suggests the more accurate numbers would justify eliminating the antidumping duty and significantly reducing the countervailing duty. Meanwhile the Canadian International Trade Tribunal is expected to issue its final injury determination in mid-April. At that time, if it finds the U.S. imports are hurting Canadian growers, the new duties will take effect but, if the CITT finds no injury, the case ends and duties already collected will be refunded.
Zimfo Bites
I hate it when blight attacks my anthuriums.
Another inconclusive bse test at USDA. I know we want to know but how ’bout when it’s conclusive?
USDA announced 6 biobased items that will now receive special consideration for procurement.
Griffin Bungener has been promoted to account executive at Bader Rutter & Associates in the agency’s account services group.
Crop insurance deadline is coming up March 15.
There’s a new group of officers at NPPC.
Plump, Juicy Purplo’s
Just the other day I was having a discussion about how sometimes food doesn’t always come out the color you’d like on a bilboard. Like seeing one that’s been up a while and a red, juicy steak starts to look kind of purplish. Well this product is purple on purpose. It’s Hellers Purplo’s Honey Cocktail Sausages. They came out with them at the end of last year but I just noticed them on AdJab.
New Zealand award winning smallgoods manufacturer Heller Tasty has just launched a world first – a purple cocktail sausage called Purplo’s. Over a year in the making, Purplo’s were marketed tested at the New Zealand Kids Fair in July and the New Zealand Food Show in August.
Todd Heller, director of Heller Tasty, said the response from those shows vindicated the hard work that went into producing the Purplo’s. “We would have had at least 20 goes at getting the purple casing right. It was too brown, then too red, but in the end we succeeded, although there were times when we thought we would put the whole idea in the ‘too hard’ basket. In the end we had to import the natural food colouring from Germany to make sure we had it right,” he said.
This is why you always need to pay attention at those NAMA conventions. You might just hear about something that will give you a creative idea. That’s what happened to Todd.
Heller got the idea when at a marketing seminar earlier last year when there was a case study on Heinz introducing purple ketchup in the United States to appeal to young children and teenagers.
“I immediately thought, why can’t we do that with a sausage? And now we have, although we went about it differently. They just changed the colour of the sauce, but not the content. We have gone the extra step and made an entirely new product,” he said.
Wine & Accords Need Time
A fine wine sometimes needs some time. And that’s the way our USTR, Rob Portman looks at the U.S./EU Wine Accord. It looks like we’ve reached an agreement, sort of. At least a beginning of an agreement. Actually a Wine Accord. It only took 20 years to get this far.
From the EU Directorate-General For Agriculture & Rural Development:
The European Union and the United States today in London signed a bilateral wine accord which will bring major benefits for EU wine producers. The agreement, which was approved by EU agriculture ministers in December 2005, follows 20 years of negotiation. It will help EU winemakers to build on their current success in the US, which is by far the EU’s largest export market. Annual EU wine exports to the US are worth more than 2 billion euros, around 40 percent of EU exports in terms of value. This agreement provides a clear demonstration that the US and the EU can resolve important and complex issues through bilateral negotiations and both sides are committed to doing so in the future. The EU and US will start talks within 90 days on a more ambitious second-phase agreement.
“I’m delighted that this agreement can finally enter into force, and I raise my glass to the negotiators for their efforts,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “This deal will facilitate access for EU wines to the lucrative US market, where consumers greatly appreciate the quality and long history behind our wines. In today’s increasingly competitive market place, it is vital that there are no unnecessary and burdensome barriers for our winemakers, who I believe are the best in the world. The EU attaches great importance to the proper protection of its geographical indications abroad.”
From the U. S. Trade Representative:
LONDON – U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel today signed a bilateral agreement on wine-making practices and labeling of wine that will facilitate bilateral trade in wine valued at $2.8 billion annually.
“Like a good wine, this agreement took time. But by helping to establish predictable conditions for bilateral wine trade it is clearly a win-win situation for U.S. and EU winemakers,” said Ambassador Portman. “Wine makers on both sides of the Atlantic have the right to be proud of how tradition, climate and expertise combine to create unique tasting experiences. This agreement honors these differences.”
Taste Beer At World Grains Summit
When a conference has a program titled, “Beer Tasting 101” it gets my attention. That’s one of the things you can attend in conjunction with the first ever World Grains Summit: Food and Beverages, San Francisco, Sept. 17 – 20. This is a new conference sponsored by AACC International and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas.
Want to present a paper of your own for this conference? The deadline is April 27th. There’s a preliminary schedule available already. Check here to register to receive more information about the event.
What’s Blue, French and English
Here’s a new website to look at. The Canadian Belgian Blue Association is now online. It’s simple and has a unique multi-lingual functionality. When you visit the home page text is in English on the left and French on the right. So you’ve basically got a bi-lingual mirrored website. Nicely done folks. Lots of pictures. Loads fast. There is one little animated title thing but I can take that. Otherwise it has information in short chunks that are easy to navigate to.
Newly elected President Mark Hodges, a Manitoba-based Belgian Blue Beef (BBB) breeder, is “thrilled to see the Canadian BBB industry reach the point where we can have our own portal on the web. We’ve at a crossroads where production from current BBB breeders in Canada just can’t keep up with demand for our double-muscled cattle genetics and naturally lean meat products for consumers. Our three Carcass wins at the Canadian Western Agribition had a big impact on the demand for BBB.” The bilingual website reflects the large number of BBB breeders in the province of Quebec. Members and non-members can post cattle for sale on the site, a first for a BBB association in North America.