As also pointed out in Bruxelles during the first Freshfel-Europatat meeting on June 2nd, 2016, the main focus will be on transparency: corporate responsibility programmes and certification schemes to guarantee the quality, traceability and healthiness of the the products are all aimed at facilitating the exchange of information along the production chain, bringing producers and consumers closer.
At the same time, product innovation (such as varietal renovation) is also important, as it can improve the experience of final consumers. However, it is not enough to guarantee an increase in sales unless it is supported by communication and by the promotion of healthy eating habits.
When are consumers willing to spend more?
Even though the economic crisis has affected fresh produce sales in some countries, Italy included, there are new niches for products with unique characteristics.
Even though their prices are quite high, a better flavour and exotic characteristics seem more important. These qualities cannot be detected at first sight, so the products require an accurate corporate strategy in terms of branding, packaging and story-telling.
Convenience
Another aspect which has been pushing Italian and European consumers to buy products is their service content ad convenience.
Single-portion formats and e-commerce are becoming increasingly important. The pioneers were the UK and the Netherlands, but they seem to be going well elsewhere too (see chart below).
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In Italy, the value of ready-to-eat dishes was over €2 billion in 2015, i.e. 11% more than 2010. This figure is of particular significance, especially if we consider that their per unit value is much higher than that of unprocessed fresh products.
In general, fresh convenience food is the direct result of investments in innovation in the cultivation, ripening and processing stages - seedless fruit, easy to peel products, long shelf-lives, single-portion formats and pre-cut mixes.
Just think about the success of fresh-cut products. In Italy alone, this market exceeded €770 million in 2015, mainly for what concerns vegetables (packed salads represent 75% of the fresh-cut vegetable buys).
Italy is the first country among those analysed by Euromonitor International, with over 1.6 kg bought on average every year. It is followed by the UK (1.48 kg), Spain (1.48 kg) and France (1.4 kg). In Germany, fresh-cut salad has not been as successful.
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Over the years, said consumption values have increased significantly in all five countries and the trend is expected to continue also through 2015-2020.