Why do we pay big dollars for low-value food?
If ‘value’ can be described as a person’s judgement of what is important in life, then how do you value fresh fruit and vegetables? Does it fall into your top five requirements to live well and be healthy and happy? What is it truly worth……do you invest in quality, fresh produce?
Please stop for a minute and consider our image. How does the value of the fresh produce jar compare to the value of the confectionary?
Your immediate reaction may be that the fresh produce provides health benefits and is worth more? However, the reality is per kilo, most confectionary retails six times more expensive, often higher, than many fruit and vegetables (see our table below).
Similar conclusions can be made if we compare fresh produce to other, regularly- purchased food and various grocery items. In fact, if shopping trends and actual dollar figure values are taken seriously, the true ‘shopping status’ given to fresh produce is very low.
While many manufactured food items develop a brand and benefits to create consumer value, fresh produce still relies on a price per kilogram approach. As an industry, we undersell the many fundamental values – such as nutrient density, overall health and weight-loss benefits etc – and pitch our products purely at the singular ‘ingredient’ level.
Value-adding produce and making it more accessible and easy to consume is not something we do well. So, beyond defining how you value fruit and vegetables, here are a couple of broader, industry points I would like you to consider:
How do we capture consumer imagination and increase the value of fresh produce?
Can we as an industry appeal to consumer senses and deliver options to eat mouth-watering fruit and vegetables?
Could fresh produce industries creatively work together to boost the consumption and value of fruit and vegetables and make them more mainstream than confectionary?
I Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.