Suppliers have a huge chance to grow sales by understanding the modern consumer and focusing on new opportunities, marketing expert Professor David Hughes has claimed.
Hughes, of Imperial College London, told the NFU Conference in Birmingham that despite an air of unease around the industry driven by concerns over issues such as market returns and Brexit, the fact that the British population is set to grow significantly over the next two decades offers a rosy future.
Self-sufficiency, which has been on the decline, will bottom out and then start to grow again, according to former Berry Gardens director Hughes, who used the soft-fruit industry as an example of the kind of sales increases that are possible with clever marketing, better varieties and easier-to-eat products.
The health and wellbeing trend is providing further opportunity, added Hughes, especially for smaller, unique and artesanal brands with social responsibility at their heart, and which use descriptive language to promote their products.
'Be creative - use adjectives that mean something to consumers and make them want to pay more,' he urged. 'Big food [suppliers] have been caught with their trousers down, overprocessing food. They are struggling to find a more natural, genuine image.'
Farmers should also take advantage of the fact that it is easier than ever to engage directly with consumers, he concluded.
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