Consumer understanding of the produce supply chain is rare: how do you solve that?
From all that we are all told by marketing pros, consumers love the idea of “getting to know” growers, the folks who put food on their plates.
We often hear shoppers long to see behind the curtain, reach back to the farm.
How much do consumers want to know? Do they want simply a notion, or the full story, warts and all?
Do consumers even care about the plight of growers? That is to say, do they really understand or care about the challenges growers face, such as input cost increases, labor shortages, natural disasters and more.
If not, is there a way to make them care, or at least understand?
That's a question I put to the LinkedIn Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group recently.
There were 20 responses from the group. Here are a few:
- The European market is getting more conscious about all the challenges and they truly care about the growers; nevertheless, let's face it, it has been a work of years to get consumers to that level, demanding more social certifications and being willing to pay more to actually smooth the growers' challenges!
- As a consumer, I know when a bag of groceries that used to cost $25 has increased to $35. However, at the retail level, many parties have paid for and marked up the items I buy. As a consumer, I'm concerned that my costs have increased but the grower/packer/shipper/farm worker hasn't shared in the increase.
- As a professional in the fresh produce industry, I talk with growers who are trying to pull potatoes out of flooded fields before mold sets in, fruit growers whose crops are destroyed before they even grow due to a late season frost. Most consumers have no idea where their food comes from. A peach from China will look and taste like a peach from New Jersey (when you buy at the mega-stores). Cilantro from Mexico or Florida? Bell peppers from Leamington or Santa Maria? To answer your question directly, the average consumer may not understand how to frame the question; how can they appreciate the response?
- They should, but sadly the rhetoric about inflation and higher costs drowns out any effort for them to care. Get the media talking about it across the spectrum and you have a shot. In the meantime, outrage seems to be ruling the mob.
- Not the average consumer, no. However, the more effort to make said average consumer educated, the more they will care. Especially knowing the challenges, roadblocks and increases we have to endure as a grower.
- WE cannot rely on any other institution other than our own to make the efforts to both market our challenges, as well as our brand/brand awareness.
- I feel it [is] extremely important to mention that even employees who work in the industry to generate the income/sales don’t understand the blood, sweat and tears that [go] into farming, so there is a huge disconnect there and far greater with consumers. While I do feel education has helped immensely and is imperative, I don't think consumers would be as receptive to absorb costs even after knowing the struggles and dedication each farmer shows to their crop.
- In today’s society, most cannot afford to live comfortably and live in debt or paycheck to paycheck. With ever-increasing living costs, inflation, petrol price hikes, interest rates, etc., it is difficult to make one care when they can't afford to put food on the table or provide for the family on a basic level. While I would hope that the attitude and compassion for the farmers would increase entirely, I don't think it would mean that they would then be willing to absorb these costs. Sadly, the farmers and affiliated companies (exporters, packhouses, transporters) usually end up picking up the tab. I think the only way to maximize this concept would be on an international level where larger retailers should step up to the plate and at least take on half of the costs or more. Ultimately, farming is becoming too expensive and if it continues in this manner, we will lose many valuable farms and their product very quickly. This will affect the larger retailers and supermarkets like Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, etc., as they will struggle to ensure they have product on their shelves to keep up with demand on their side.
- We are simply too removed from the task of farming to fully appreciate it. As long as we delegate the task of obtaining food to someone else to the extent we have, it will remain a societal challenge.
- Maybe just now consumers understand a little better due to supply chain issues. However, the industry could run an education infomercial that covered the vagaries of too little rain (droughts), too much rain (floods) and what effect this has on cropping and the families that work the farms. Then, maybe predatory purchasing of the crops. The last part could be the processing and supply chain just to get a piece of fruit or a vegetable onto the consumer's plate. The disconnect is enormous and, I think, getting worse, so an education process is probably overdue.
- I wish consumers were educated more on this subject so they could see what farmers have to endure to make a meager profit and how much large retail inflates the prices unnecessarily, and hopefully, they will see who [is] the hero and the villain. Of course, this is not a blanket statement of all retail, but mostly the larger and exchange-traded corporations.
- Too often, we overlook the gift of farmers as we grow ever more distant from the processes that bring food to our tables.
- It is so important for people to be connected to the food they consume. Consumers have little idea of the many steps involved from farm to their table. Of even more importance is that they do not understand or take time to learn the impact of food choices on their own health. Those choices begin with sourcing food that is grown, distributed, stored and consumed in ways that support their health and respect the life consumed.
- For all the focus that seems to have been put on fresh produce for decades, I'm not certain the average consumer truly understands all that much about it or what goes into growing and distributing it.
- When a friend who is a second-grade teacher asked her class where apples come from, an enthusiastic hand-raising/waving child called out, "Kroger!". So ... he was seven or eight, but it points to a gap in how parents are talking to their children about where our food comes from.
- I have seen some regarding freight cost going up. But as we know, there are so many processes fruit goes through, from farm to customers’ homes, and I am not sure that the average American that is not in the food industry [actually understands] the complete process and that each process is costing more.
Even within the industry, many of us have little appreciation for the work that another part of the supply chain does to harvest the crop on the farm and move it to the table. Solving that may be the first step to expanding understanding to consumers.
