Five ‘Evolving’ Challenges For Increasing Produce Consumption

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

A number of years ago, the head of the organization that represented egg producers gave a speech, and he confessed that egg producers had a problem. “The problem is that people want meals,” he explained, “And eggs are an ingredient.” For many vegetables, the problem is similar.

This research highlights the “four horsemen” of dietary change:

1) A confluence of trends that show people have neither the time nor the competence to cook, so they look for foods that are either ready to eat or easy to prepare.

2) Changes in societal patterns that make the “big three” meal occasions less predictable and that lead to more grazing or frequent eating and snacking, with a concomitant demand for easy-to-snack-on foods.

3) Higher education levels, more travel and a more ethnically diverse population allowing for more experimental eating and more rapid change in eating habits.

4) The latent instinct to prepare meals, to cook for one’s family and to be a nurturing contributor to the household through food preparation.

A salad kit is easy to prepare, easy to bring to work or school, and can use interesting ingredients. If one is serving it to family, then one can easily add a personal touch with some tomatoes, cucumbers, steak or Grandma’s homemade salad dressing. So there clearly are ways that the produce industry can ride these trends. Yet, the research also points out five fundamental challenges that the produce industry faces:

First, although we have various items that become hot and trendy, there is little evidence that these trends serve to increase consumption as they mostly replace other produce items. So a restaurant chain, such as Houston’s, rides the kale trend and introduces a kale salad in peanut vinaigrette side dish — but it is simply a replacement for some other vegetable item. It has zero net effect on overall sales of produce to the restaurant and, since we don’t know if more people eat the kale than would have eaten the old produce side dish, we can’t know if it has any positive or negative impact on overall consumption.

Second, the consumer quest for convenient food mostly leaves the vegetable category struggling. Increasingly, it means that growth in the category will come as a consequence of the creativity of the fresh-cut processing sector. Can they create the items that will turn vegetables from ingredients into foods?

Third, the rising interest in purchasing ready-to-eat or almost-ready-to-eat meals obviously helps take-out at restaurants, the deli counter, and prepared food bars at retail, but how does the produce department thrive in an age when business is shifting? Although one might think that for the grower-shipper, it makes no difference if the produce is sold in the produce department or via the deli or a restaurant, it actually makes quite a bit of difference.

The produce department, and the people who run it, actually care about produce and increasing the sales of produce. In contrast, the food buyers at restaurants or deli generally couldn’t care less if the consumer eats produce or dairy or meat or pasta — losing someone at retail who actually cares about selling our products is a big loss.

Fourth, the idea of “almost homemade” is really another take on the “Hamburger Helper” effect, in which consumers feel good about doing something to create the meal, even if it only takes a minute. The problem is that boosting consumption will probably require more, not less, culinary expertise and intervention, as the key is to use techniques for cooking vegetables that cultures, which did not have access to much protein, used to make produce tasty. Cross-merchandising and marketing with frozen entrees may be successful, but won’t be the sea change we need to boost consumption. Plus, although fresh broccoli alongside a frozen entrée might be a little more upscale, very often that frozen entrée is thrown in the freezer for use on an unpredictable date in the future. Isn’t it likely that the consumer satisfied with a frozen entrée will be just as satisfied with frozen broccoli?

Fifth, it is great to see growth in categories such as dips, salsa, juices, etc. —  as long as produce is tied with these items. Due to practicalities, happenstance and strategy, it is nice that these products are rung up under produce, but the key is that the consumer must use baby carrots, celery sticks and grape tomatoes with the dips — not chips — and eat a salad — not a cookie — while they sip the juice. If not, regardless of how retail classifies these things, for many growers these ancillary categories are competition.

What is certain is that the consumer is changing, and as the consumer changes, so will retailers. If it is to remain vibrant and strong, and a key differentiator for the retailer, the produce department must evolve as well.