According to Alex, consumption has a lot to do with the presentation of the products, their nutritional composition and the quantity of food. “Other important aspects are agronomics, which is where we produce; input, which has to do with fair trade, environmental responsibility, etc., and of course economics, supply and demand.”
Food trends rely on factors such as population, urbanisation, education, information and income. “For the higher income group, the most important trends are pleasure, health and well-being, convenience, quality, reliability and sustainability and ethics,” explains Alex.
“Brazilian consumers are also attracted by exotic foods, with more and more people looking for new things; products such as starfruit are growing in popularity, and Brazilians are also eating more berries and many varieties of avocado.”
Organics are also a growing trend, as well as healthy products, and given the smaller size of families, convenience plays a very important role. “Organics products tend not to look as good as regular products; thus, one of the challenges today is how to tell consumers that this product is of better quality,” states Alex.
Regarding convenience, Alex explains that it is important to offer smaller sizes to reduce the amount of waste and to offer products that can be eaten on the go. “For example, I was living in Sao Paulo four months ago and I often had to eat in the car because I didn’t know for how long I’d be sitting in traffic.”
It is worth noting that, besides taste, 24% of the people who focus on health and well-being place a lot of weight on products not containing pesticides. Alex says that “according to the study quoted earlier, by 2020 this percentage will increase to 34%; and taking also into account reliability and quality, today it stands at 22% and in 2020 it will rise to 41%.”
He also affirms that “around 63% of the consumers know how to identify organic products, generally through quality seals, but when it comes to traceability, 59% of the consumers do not understand or have not heard about it. 27% have just heard the word, so we have to educate these people about the importance of traceability and what it means for them.”
Angeloni, in fact, joined the Sustainable Food traceability program in 2012; a corporate initiative to ensure good agricultural practices and an efficient control of the origin and processing of agro-business products traded by the company, meeting the growing demand from its consumers for sustainability, health and quality of life.
“Today, 76% of our suppliers, accounting for 92% of our total volume, are already tracked, 13% are being converted and only 11%, representing 5% of our volume, still remains to be traced. To this end, we use digital labels with a QR code linking to information about the product origin and we offer Wifi connections, making it easier for our consumers to access it, explains Alex.”
“We will aim for the sustainable food program to expand to other chains, as it is helping improve the quality of our suppliers, stimulating technical development and efficiency in the production chain and engaging on setting inclusive commercial politics that support and incentivise family agriculture and cooperativism. By doing so, we foster conscious consumption,” concludes the marketing director of Angeloni.