Organic fruits and vegetable are being sold unpackaged more often. Research by Wageningen UR and the GroentenFruit Huis Comité Biohandel, through a virtual supermarket, shows that 20 percent more consumers bought these products when they were unpackaged. In the second instance it was shown that the sales increase significantly when the products aren't packaged.
Buyers have little understanding for the packaging of organic vegetables and fruit in plastic, earlier research showed. The variant 'unpackaged' versus 'packaged' was tested in the virtual supermarket, which was placed in a real Hoogvliet supermarket. Consumers were able to develop to shop digitally using a shopping list. Both organic and non organic variants were available in the virtual supermarkets.
The research was then repeated in practice in all Hoogvliet stores. The product organic avocado was no longer offered packaged, but unpackaged with a sticker designation. The regular avocado was already offered unpackaged. The result of the practical test was that both the volume of organic avocado as well as the total volume of avocado (organic and regular) that was sold was significantly larger in this test period.
The companies that are represented in the GroentenFruit Huis Comité Biohandel will discuss these results with their customers and bring them into practice. Ed van Venrooij of Hoogvliet supermarkets: "The results are very recognisable to us, we already switched multiple organic fruits and vegetables to unpackaged and will continue to do this in the future."
The companies that are represented in the GroentenFruit Huis Comité Biohandel will discuss these results with their customers and bring them into practice. Ed van Venrooij of Hoogvliet supermarkets: "The results are very recognisable to us, we already switched multiple organic fruits and vegetables to unpackaged and will continue to do this in the future."