Consumers’ aversion to wasting food at home is now becoming a key driving factor in what products they choose to buy, which is influencing the growth of Australia’s $12.1bn fresh fruit and vegetable retail market, according to findings from food market
research and analysis firm Freshlogic.
In 2015 nearly 70% of Australian consumers said they would buy a smaller portion of food if they thought it would save them throwing food out later on, the latest results from Freshlogic’s Mealpulse™ consumer panel show. Combined with the change in shopping frequency the market has experienced in the last five years, the trend is driving a shift the kind of products consumers are putting in their shopping baskets.
“Australians feel guilty about throwing out food, and they are increasingly looking for ways to reduce how much they’re wasting at home,” explains Freshlogic’s Managing Director Martin Kneebone.
“Consumers are shopping for food 3.6 times a week now, and that means they’re using the shops as a fridge instead of stocking up at home. They don’t want to buy large portions that are more than they need for the next few nights, which will just get thrown out at the end of the week.”
Developing products that are convenient for busy shoppers and help them to reduce their waste is behind much of the growth in the Australian fresh produce industry. The biggest success story has been small tomatoes.
“Small tomatoes are very convenient and consumers can use the entire product without any waste,” says Mr Kneebone. “The fresh tomato category had a retail sales value of more than $1bn in 2015, largely because of the growth of the higher-value small tomato products.”
That growth has in turn driven significant investment in the protected cropping production systems required to produce enough small tomatoes to fill that demand growth.
Freshlogic’s Mealpulse™ panel is the largest food-specific consumer panel in Australia, and has been providing research and analysis on the Australian food market for more than 8 years.
