Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
On the Market Floor
Have you ever stopped to think about the remarkable complexity of fresh produce production and marketing?
I try to cover as many aspects of this as possible in my column, reminding readers of this benefit or that new development. But I’ve realised that the more I research a topic, the more there is to learn.
CHANGE: THE ONLY CONSTANT
New product development, new ways of satisfying consumer requirements, improvements to the health benefits of produce, new marketing and packaging concepts … the list goes on and on. Change constantly drives this industry, and ultimately ensures better sales. It also makes fresh produce a uniquely stimulating industry to be involved in.
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
An interesting example of change and fresh thinking is the concept of ‘ugly fruit’. Here, retailers have taken the very properties of fruit that made them unacceptable to consumers and made them desirable! By doing this, they’ve turned them into viable commercial lines.
This is so much better than throwing them away, as was the ‘old’ way. Congratulations to the enterprising retailer who first thought of this.
It makes such sense, after all. ‘Ugly’ fruit is not ‘pre-planned’ or the result of any genetic modification. It is a normal result of the plant’s growing conditions.
Many individual fruits have an ‘ugly’ appearance, yet they are still within the bounds of normal plant growth. After all, they grow alongside their ‘beautiful’ fruit brothers.
VARIATION IS OK!
Consumers have long been conditioned by retail advertising to expect perfection, so it’s no small feat to realign their thinking around ‘ugly fruit’.
Most retailers seem to ignore or simply don’t understand the reality that nature has a different schedule to theirs. Fresh fruit and veggies are not produced on a factory conveyor line; they are not endless bottles of the same shape with the same ingredient in them. Fresh produce is highly varied, which makes producing and marketing it complex and exciting.
• Michael Cordes is an agricultural journalist, consultant, trainer and former farmer. Email him at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Market Floor.