GROWERS could improve returns by increasing their retail knowledge and working more closely with retailers, a report by a Nuffield scholar has found.

SP Exports owner Camilla Phillip's study, Supply chain efficiencies and the growth of category management in the horticultural industry, also called for more research into what consumers wanted from their produce.

"We allow the retailers to control the supply chain because we haven't taken control of our own product. We send it to market and hope for best, or send it to retailers with them dictating price," Ms Phillip told The Weekly Times.

"By having good industry knowledge of how retail works, what you, the supplier, needs, and what margin the retailer needs, working together you can make more inroads, as you're more in control."

Ms Phillip's operation in Bundaberg supplies tomatoes, mangoes and lemons to retail and export markets.

She said market and consumer research was neglected in Australia. Research and development funding, as well as marketing levies, rarely paid for research into what consumers wanted from the product.

"We have often put our marketing effort into what will benefit the supplier and retailer before the consumer," the report said.

"If we don't know at what price-point consumers stop buying (the produce), how can we make informed decisions?" Ms Phillip said.

The report also called for immediate work into better green labelling on Australian produce.

"We need to enable consumers to compare products based on their carbon footprint, in the same way that they currently compare nutritional information and price - and also allow consumers to have a local connection with product origin through concepts of buying locally," the report said.

"We're so far behind the eight-ball on this we should have started a long time ago," Ms Phillip told The Weekly Times.

She also warned of the delicate nature of trade relationships. Poor or ignorant decisions in Australia could affect our ability to export, she said.

The report also found convenience was becoming more important to time-poor shoppers, and predicted growth in categories such as prepared and cut vegetables.

 

*This news is a quote from the「WeeklyTimesNow」.