A recent Key Note Market Update showed the UK retail market for fresh fruit and vegetables fell by 0.8% in 2014, which was the first decline recorded over the five years examined by the report. The fruit sector exhibited modest value growth with all of the decline coming from the vegetable sector.
In the vegetables sector, one of the key reasons for the decline was that many prices exhibited deflation compared with 2013, owing to the relative success of the harvest following a long hot summer.
Given the importance of price, and increasingly health, to UK consumers, it is perhaps surprising that vegetable consumption did not exhibit a more substantial increase in 2014. Salads, potatoes, root vegetables, brassicas and legumes all declined in value, while the only sector that recorded an increase was ‘other’ vegetables.
Increasingly adventurous consumers, particularly among the younger demographic, combined with relatively high levels of immigration into the UK, has diversified the demand for vegetables. In addition to established products such as sweet corn, garlic, courgettes and mushrooms, the demand for squashes, chillies, bean sprouts, lemongrass and mixed vegetable packs has also risen.
The market will remain resilient, although initial indications of improved consumption rates suggest that any growth in volume sales will be gradual. Key Note therefore forecasts modest market growth of 7.8% between 2015 and 2019.
Mushrooms are one of the few lines classified as vegetables that bucked the trend, with a 2% increase in the value of sales in 2014. Part of the reason for this is the 3 year ‘Just Add Mushrooms’ mushroom promotion which started in July 2013 and is ongoing in the UK and Irish markets. The campaign, cofounded by the EU and the mushroom industries in the UK and Ireland, uses magazine and online advertising, as well as PR and education, to target female shoppers in the under 45 age group.
The Mushroom Campaign in the UK and Republic of Ireland has 3 equally important objectives:
• To increase penetration amongst 25-45 years households.
• To increase the frequency of mushroom purchase amongst 25-45 years households.
• To increase the understanding that mushrooms count as one of your ‘5-a-day’ of fruit and vegetables.
