With its monitors specifically aimed at soft fruit, tomatoes, other greenhouse vegetables, and exotics, the crowdsourcing platform Roamler shares complete shelf data from key European countries with its subscribers on a weekly basis, which is gathered by a smartphone community. Parties throughout the entire fresh produce chain, from breeders to retailers, make use of these monitors. At the request of clients, the platform decided to provide a more in-depth analysis this time around on the blackberry and raspberry shelf. For this, it took a closer look at the French, German, and Polish markets.
"Thanks to our 'Roamlers' who scan the shelves weekly, we have unique data available on units, prices, promotions, and countries of origin for each product. This provides a good insight into the transition of seasons by tracking suppliers and countries of origin. We've examined the data from these markets over the past eighteen months under a magnifying glass and summarized it in an analysis of about 20 pages. With this report, we can give companies in the fresh produce sector a good insight into what is possible with data," says Christiaan Rijnhout.
One insight from this report was the extremely limited availability of organic raspberries. "Many retailers strongly emphasize organic products in their marketing, but it's astonishing how few organic raspberries, for example, are sold. At some retailers, such as Rewe and Edeka, there were even no organic raspberries to be found over the past eighteen months. A French chain like Naturalia is a clear exception here, with its range that consists of 95% organic raspberries. In Poland, we found no organic products for both categories at all."
"The difference in countries of origin is also remarkable. France is, as with other products, very loyal to local production, and this category is no different. At the same time, you see big differences within the country. For example, Lidl almost invariably does not choose the local product, but the most cost-effective country of origin. Promotions are quite exceptional for these two products anyway," Christiaan lists.
"The report offers many more insights. It's a test for us to see if there's a need for analyses over a longer period. We see that our supermarket customers are mainly interested in the information about prices and country of origin, but other parties want to spot more trends, and in that, these reports, supported with the necessary graphs, certainly suffice. And data doesn't lie. Currently, there's a lot of demand for a melon monitor. If there's enough interest in the market, this will be the next monitor we're going to launch for both fresh and cut melons. The report also includes a link where interest by country can be indicated."
Click here to download the blackberry and raspberry market analysis for free.
For more information:
Roamler Netherlands
Christiaan Rijnhout
NDSM Plein 20-26
1033 WC, Amsterdam
Tel.: +31 6 15294869
christiaan.rijnhout@roamler.com
www.roamler.nl