Vegetables Australia May-June_MR

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R&D | CONSUMER RESEARCH |
For over three and a half years, Project Harvest
has delivered monthly insights into how Australian
consumers think and feel about fresh vegetables. With
the last report now delivered, Jarrod Strauch spoke with
service provider Colmar Brunton about the roadmap
that its findings have laid out for the industry.
HARVESTING CONSUMER
ATT I TUDES TOWARDS
FRESH VEGETABLES
The final report for this project will be made available on the InfoVeg database
at
Consumer and market program for the vegetable industry has been funded by
Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited using the research and development
National Vegetable Levy and funds from the Australian Government.
Project Number: VG12078
INFO
Over two million tonnes of fresh vegetables are sold in Australian
supermarkets, greengrocers and produce markets every year, at
a value of over $3.9 billion – but Australian consumers still aren’t
eating enough.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only seven per
cent of Australians meet the guidelines for the recommended
daily serves of vegetables (5-6 or more serves for men depending
on age, and five or more for women), despite research showing
that they also understand vegetables are generally the healthiest
food available.
To help the Australian vegetable industry bridge the gap
between intent and action, Horticulture Innovation Australia
funded the Project Harvest study to research consumers’ attitudes
towards fresh vegetable purchases.
For over three and a half years, Colmar Brunton delivered
monthly reports containing in-depth research on a roster of 28
vegetables, as well as a collection of ad hoc studies on emerging
trends or areas of interest.
The project has now concluded, leaving the industry with
a wealth of insights into how consumers think and feel about
fresh vegetables – from preferred cooking styles to freshness
expectations and everything in between.
WAVE OF THE FUTURE
“The objective back in the early days was around better
understanding consumer attitudes,” Colmar Brunton Research
Director Dr Denise Hamblin explained.
“It really focused on the ‘now’.”
However, over the life of the project, the focus evolved from
‘now’ to ‘then’ – looking at consumers’ future purchase intent,
their desires for innovation and other examinations of emerging
trends.
Colmar Brunton found that a key demographic for the
industry’s future actions was the band of Australians aged 18 to 35
years old – sometimes called “millennials”.
“These are our main grocery buyers of the future, and looking
at how these younger consumers differ to the main or to an
average consumer gives us an idea as to the future and what we
need to do,” Dr Hamblin said.
One key finding from the project was the concerning pre-
occupation among millennials with the expense of vegetables.
“When we ran the online forum with millennials, they
really over-indexed in terms of the barrier of expense around
vegetables,” Dr Hamblin said.
“There’s very little understanding of the process, and therefore
the value, that’s attached to vegetables that are harvested.
“So I think from the grower level, and throughout the industry,
there’s a need for everyone to contribute to the stories around
the process and benefits of vegetables, and the versatility of
particular vegetables – on which the growers are the experts.”
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
Over the 44 waves of the Project Harvest study, waste also
emerged as a key player in how consumers think about their
vegetable purchases.
“We know about a third of consumers don’t know how to
reduce their wastage, even though they’re really concerned
about it, and many – about a fifth – are saying they really want
more knowledge about how to use parts of vegetables that they
typically discard,” Dr Hamblin said.
Combined with the ongoing trend towards convenient product
formats, this paints an interesting picture of how consumers want
their vegetables to fit into their lives.
Whether it’s pre-cut celery sticks, pre-bagged lettuce or ready-
to-fry vegetable mixes, there is a clear trend: consumers not only
want to spend less time preparing their vegetables, they also want
to have less left over when they’re done.
“Even though the freshness expectations for these formats are
generally lower than buying a whole or uncut vegetable, we saw
that convenience was really a major driver for consumers, and
that this was also a big increase – we saw it increase from nine
per cent through to 17 per cent last year,” Dr Hamblin said.
RIPE FOR REVOLUTION
Dr Hamblin’s key message to the industry is simple: things are
looking up.
“From day one through to our last wave, what we did see is a
steady positive improvement in consumer attitudes towards fresh
vegetables,” she said.
Colmar Brunton tracked the same category health measures for
all vegetable categories: the importance to consumers of having
a particular vegetable available; consumers’ satisfaction with that
vegetable; how much they would recommend it to someone
else; their interest in innovations; and their future purchase intent.
“So over all of that time we saw an average three per cent
increase across all vegetables, which we see as a very promising
sign,” Dr Hamblin said.
This movement reflects a shifting landscape for vegetable retail
to consumers in general, with a huge potential for growth in
increasing consumer understanding about vegetables, offering
innovative new products, and breaking new ground in the ways
that produce gets to consumers.
“We saw movement in terms of Aldi, we saw increases in
perceptions of freshness for Coles over Woolworths, and the
desire to have more channels in general,” Dr Hamblin said.
“It’s painting the picture that the retail space is one that’s going
to be quite revolutionary in the coming years.”
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