Who is clueless, us or the consumer?

Afew years ago I upset a few people at a meeting (yes, I know, I have managed that trick since). It was a meeting about salmon farming and quality, held in Nick Nairn’s cook school, and all the major supermarkets were represented. I said then what I still believe now.

‘It is the job of the primary producer to form a relationship with the consumer and to turn all of the businesses in between into service providers.’

Now here’s the shocker: they really are service providers! The whole buy and sell are service providers who cannot exist without you, the primary producer.

At the time, the supermarket representatives looked as if they had just bitten on a lemon but they couldn’t argue.

entitled ‘Britons are clueless about food they eat’, was in this wonderful organ (yes, I do read it!) and the second in Scottish Farmer, ’Tesco Lamb outrage’.

Both show that we regard the consumer - the most important person in our business lives - as uneducated, uncaring and unknowing. Far worse, we forget that we are consumers too.

In the past I have worked on this attitude in two ways. At every talk I have given on marketing I would ask the audience if they knew what an avocado is. You may not be surprised to hear that most did. But then I asked: where do avocados come from? What do they grow on? What are the problems with producing them? What are their health giving or reducing properties? What are they treated with?

Not feeling so clever now? You see, when food started to be sourced from all over the world we were faced with the fact that we could never know everything about what we eat so we gave up.

Is this the consumers’ fault or the producers’? We spend a lot of time, as many industries do, complaining that we are ill understood. Is that our fault or the consumers? Before anyone starts to think that I worry just about consumers, what about politicians, regulators and all the other people our industry interacts with?

I also ask people what matters about food. Having done this several times, I can give you a list: healthy, fresh, tasty, environmentally friendly, welfare orientated and so on.

I guess you would say that this is obvious but that’s because you’re a consumer and yet you don’t know about the food you eat.

(By the way, just to be clear, I am talking to you.This isn’t about the guy

So if we’re uneducated about our food and eat poor food choices and buy cheap New Zealand lamb from Tesco under a banner that says ‘The best Scottish lamb in season’, then we shouldn’t complain when people buy cheap Norwegian salmon under a similar banner.

Far, far more importantly, it is imperative for all primary producers to start to understand that they are food producers, not farmers.We farm for a living but we produce food for our customers.

If, as a food producer, you don’t value food and the quality of food then you won’t produce food worth eating.

So here’s the message: Get out there and inform. Don’t educate be- cause that is you feeling that you know more. Inform everyone around you and those you don’t know.

When on holiday talk with pride about what you produce and why you are proud.When in the pub or restaurant tell them why you believe our food should be on their menu. If you feel that this is embarrassing or awkward your lamb or salmon has been substituted by a cheaper alternative.

The only strength a service provider can have is to try to create a market where all food is substitutable. So the key driver for every ser your product. How to substitute it when you can’t provide it, when your quality isn’t good enough, when you are too expensive or frankly when they don’t like the look of your face.

Our job is to make sure our relationship is with the consumer and that they recognise our values. If we truly provide a different product then the consumer will pay more and stick with us. If we want a regulatory, political and market climate that helps us, then we have to get out there and create

it!

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