Up against increasing challenges and low growth markets in the EU, Cogeca president Thomas Magnusson has underlined the need for cooperatives to be innovative, add value to produce and follow consumer trends.
Speaking at Cogecas' Business Forum today (8 December), Magnusson said: 'We face many challenges today ranging from climate change, volatile markets, increasing consumer demands, investment in new products, producing more with less to meet growing food demand'.
'To meet these, it’s more important than ever for the cooperative to add value to their products to respond to consumers demands,' he added. 'New, innovative products that respond to short and long term consumer trends need to be developed in order to penetrate the market. It’s also important to find new export markets for our quality produce', he added.
Bernard Guillard from French vegetable cooperative Agrial from France, Mikko Nikula of Finnish meat cooperative HkScan, Giovanni Guarneri from dairy cooperative Plac in Italy and Didier Algoet from Belgian fruit and vegetable cooperative BelOrta also participated at the event.
They underlined the need to position and differentiate the product in the market, paying attention for example to innovative packaging, labelling, branding, quality, good production standards.
Good planning is also important as well as a good analysis of market risks. One successful example cited at the event involved the creation of a ready-made salad which became so successful in France that it also hit the UK and Spanish markets.
These discussions are part of ongoing work towards cooperative development, and building networks is part of this process, Copa-Cogeca stated.
