The British Growers Association has launched the first ever survey of packaging in fresh produce. The survey uses data from British Grower’s ProduceView market intelligence survey and provides an independent overview of fresh fruit and vegetable packaging type by category and retailer.
Jack Ward, Chief Executive of British Growers, said: “Retail packaging is highly topical at the present time and we are all aware that the fresh produce industry and its customers want to provide packaging that is efficient, provides the best offer for the consumer and is sustainable. Up until now there was no independent source of information to enable packers and retailers to make decisions. ProduceView is the perfect tool for gathering this type of data as it uses independent data collected weekly from a representative sample of all sector of retailer.”
Overall the survey shows that plastic wrap is the most popular form of packaging with more than 49% of products using it. Loose (bulk) produce is some way behind at 15.5%. This pattern is fairly consistent across all retailers, although Morrison’s over-trades in loose compared to its share of the market, while Iceland under-trades.
Country of origin appears to have little influence on the mix of packaging and, in fact, produce from Europe and the rest of the world is more likely to be sold loose than produce grown in this country.
The survey also provides information on packaging type by fruit and vegetable category and looks at average price versus packaging type by retailer. Perhaps surprisingly loose products are not always cheaper than packaged. All major retailers are covered including Aldi, Iceland and Lidl across conventional and organic.
Copies of a report showing the top line of the survey are available from British Growers for £24.99 plus VAT.
“The report provides an overview of the research we have carried out, but we have more than 3000 lines of data providing a comprehensive view of the current state of fresh produce packaging,” Ward said. “We can offer detailed analysis and give people an overview of the powerful tool that we have in ProduceView. It is unique in providing historical data as well current information on price, variety, country of origin etc, and real time pictures of store fixtures. We aim to run the survey every 6 months and report on developments”
To obtain you copy email: ProducePackagingSurvey@Britishgrowers.org