UK: Growers ready to shake up trade with Avocado Manifesto
Subtitled Give UK Consumers What They Want and Sell More Avocados, the manifesto has now launched to the UK trade, targeting everyone from importers and pre-packers to category buyers and store managers.
The creation of the manifesto was inspired by in-depth consumer research conducted during last summer’s South African avocado season, supported by South African growers and some of the UK industry’s key players. The research findings delivered practical consumer-driven recommendations to boost avocado consumption.
The research was carried out in two phases, starting with focus groups talking to regular avocado buyers, with each group dedicated to a particular multiple retailer. Over a series of two-hour sessions, every aspect of avocado purchase, the in-store experience and use was probed in depth. The findings that came out of the focus groups were then tested with a nationally representative 2,000-strong main shopper consumer panel.
The results challenge a number of assumptions about avocado retailing and provide a clear route map to increasing sales.
With per capita consumption levels among existing avocado users relatively low in the UK, especially when compared to similar European markets, the Avocado Manifesto recommends the key steps that consumers expect retailers to take to encourage greater sales. The manifesto includes guidance on merchandising, packaging, ripeness indication and usage information, among other areas.
Rob Metcalfe, managing director of Richmond Towers Communications, which has run the Summer Avocados campaign for 18 years, says: “The Avocado Manifesto is not about preaching – it’s about taking practical steps to improve performance in avocado retailing. We want to challenge some of the common perceptions the trade has about consumers’ attitudes towards avocados, and ensure that as an industry we are pulling together to tackle some of these barriers to market growth. Our aim with this campaign is to really ensure we put avocados firmly back on the retail map.”
The 2012 South African export crop estimate is 12.5 million 4 kg cartons (50,000 tonnes), of which 45% will be green skin and 55% Hass. This is significantly up on the 2011 export crop, which came to a mere 6.7 million cartons as a result of severe widespread hail in late 2010. The first South African fruit is now arriving on UK shores, with the season peaking in June and July.
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