Consumer demand for fresh will shape the future of grocery retailing

In an increasingly competitive global grocery market, retailers will be looking to the fruit and vegetable business more and more for ideas on how to boost their sales, improve consumer experience in their stores and distinguish their overall offer.

In many areas, this will translate into higher demand for better-tasting products that can command a better price, but in other markets, the affordability of quality fresh produce may well be a more influential deciding factor.

What’s more, growing consumer demand for quality fresh produce is raising expectations across the entire supply chain and compelling retailers to demonstrate greater commitment in areas like traceability and environmental stewardship.

These are just some of the key findings published in the latest annual trend report from FRUIT LOGISTICA, which took place Feb. 6-8 in Berlin.

“The fact that fresh produce plays a critical role in retail should not come as a surprise to anyone in the industry,” said Alexander Pöhl, one of the report’s lead authors.

Rainer Münch, Partner at Oliver Wyman, adds: “What might not be so readily apparent, however, is just how quickly the market for fresh produce is changing. Customers now expect good quality fresh produce in every store. As a result, while grocery retail is seeking to use fresh produce to achieve a market advantage, doing so is becoming more and more challenging.”

The report is available as a free download from the FRUIT LOGISTICA website and offers fresh insight into how a number of factors are influencing consumer demand, including health, convenience, emotion, ethics, the environment, provenance, seasonality, affordability, visual merchandising and quality.

Surprises in Store is based on one of the most in-depth fresh produce consumer surveys ever conducted, research that involved almost 7,000 consumers in 14 different markets across Europe and North America.

The full Trend Report 2019 is available here.