A substantial number of UK households don't purchase soft fruit because primarily they are unaware of fruit's value in the weekly shop.
This was a key revelation in a seminar hosted by event sponsor, The Hartington Group. The group ran a series of seminars, including Growing your Business - a key to exploring the markets, structures and funding to help growers survive and grow.
Speakers included Richard Bruce, chief executive of The Hartington Group, Chris Barnes, chairman of Assured Food Standards, David Hughes, professor of marketing, Imperial College London, and Sue Clements HSBC horticultural Manager (Kent and East Sussex).
The session illustrated vastly differing trends in fruit consumption in the UK and Europe. Understanding the consumer was put forward as a key driver.
Bruce underlined the importance of convenience. He said: “I see no reason why the trend for convenience will decline but the relative importance of price to most consumers is declining. As incomes continue to increase, the relative importance of price declines and this represents a genuine opportunity.
“Different varieties also appeal to different consumers and this pulls us away from the commodity markets where you can only exist and do well if you are the lowest cost producer. We are not low cost producers and we need to have a look at adding value.”
He added: “We need a different offering for each consumer segment and that helps us in our search for new varieties. We have a much better idea of consumers than we did a few years ago ñ have invested in research and should know the market inside out. It's all about high gross margin and high rate of sale. That's what retailers want so if you can deliver that on different varieties then you will get the shelf space.”
For full Fruit Focus coverage, see this week's Journal, pages 10-15.
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