Fear not, dear reader, I’m not about to give you the benefit of my opinion on the demands for economic stimulus of France’s newly elected president François Hollande (for what it’s worth, I think it’s a pretty good idea), but rather to talk to you about the brilliant work they’re doing in the berry sector.
In the berry category the story really is all about growth. Austerity never ever gets a mention. Sales of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and other fresh berries continue to defy gravity, growing each and every year. And the good news is that penetration levels – that is to say the number of households that buy berries regularly – are still
comparatively low.
At least those are the reports that we hear from Britain’s berry sector. While the UK economy may have been in and out of recession over these past few years, which have seen some of its biggest food retailers trumpet the benefits of ever lower prices, berry sales continue to grow – and at good prices too. It has brought the sector to the point where berries are now the UK’s single most successful category in the fresh produce department.
No surprise therefore that 240 and more delegates from 24 different countries braved yet another rainy May weekday in central London to hear the good news at this year’s Global Berry Congress.
While the rest of us in the fresh produce business have been losing sleep fretting about low prices and slow demand, it seems the berry category continues to defy economic reality. It’s still growing, and there is every sign that it can go further.
Berry sales in Britain have grown by more than 300 per cent over the last decade, according to Ed Garner of Kantar Worldpanel. Annual sales of some £146m (€183m) in 2000 have grown to more than £783m in the year to March 2012, with the strawberry sector now worth £465m in sales (up 10 per cent on the previous year), raspberries up 18 per cent at £146m and blueberry sales up 13 per cent at £145m.
It raises the obvious question of whether this growth in sales is sustainable. By all accounts, the berry category believes so. According to Kantar Worldpanel, sales penetration in strawberries is at 75 per cent, which means that one-quarter of shoppers never buy strawberries. For raspberries and blueberries, the figures are even more encouraging, with penetration levels at 33.5 per cent and 30.7 per cent respectively.
Berry sales have grown in Britain thanks to the common endeavour of the key parts of supply chain: retailers have given shelf space to the fruit and promoted them heavily, while producers and their category managers have focused on flavour and quality to ensure that much better fruit ends up in shoppers’ baskets. And the sector as a whole has also come together to promote berries, as well as their health and other benefits to consumers.
So this growth strategy is working. It seems to me it can be applied quite simply to other categories too. Indeed, much the same way of working helped banana sales grow significantly in various European countries in the 1990s. Interestingly, berry sales in other parts of Europe are well behind those of the UK precisely because the sector as a whole has not bought into the same strategy. The international composition of the audience of last month’s Global Berry Congress suggests that it won’t take long for the good news about berries to spread.
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