Fruits and Vegetables Branding – Yes or No?

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has made it a goal to handle the supply of fresh, wholesome, good food every day of the year, to the entire population.

 

As part of the Ministry’s promotion of its policy, a conference was held this week regarding the challenges in marketing produce, organized by the Research, Economics, and Strategy Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in memory of Dr. Avraham Melamed, the founder of the Market Research Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and its first manager.

 

At the conference, Prof. Amir Heiman, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem Faculty of Agriculture and a marketing expert, presented the results of a study on the importance in branding the basic fresh food that we eat – agricultural produce – fruits and vegetables.

 

Prof. Heiman’s study showed that the use of brands in fresh produce is much less pronounced than the use of brands in all the categories. From studies done in Israel opposite studies done in Europe and the United States it arises that in the list of leading brands in retail food in Britain and in Israel, there is not a single brand for fresh food. In contrast, there are very strong brands for processed foods, including meat.

It was also learned that women ascribe less importance to brand names than men, since they prefer to choose fruits and vegetables by their look and feel, and less by their reputation, claiming that they have experience and confidence in choosing food.

Regarding the investment in brands, Prof. Heiman’s study showed that in fresh produce the investment in creating a brand rarely paid for itself.

What characterizes the companies that succeeded in creating a strong brand name? A rule of success presented at the conference that makes an agricultural product strong and successful is the division of products into groups according to distinct and discernible levels of quality. Therefore, one must define a number of categories of quality and brand each separately. The guiding principle is that the highest quality products will be sold under the brand name while the lower quality goods will be sold as generic products (without identifying the manufacturer).

 

Moreover, Prof. Heiman presented several examples of attempts to brand fresh produce around the world.

Also at the conference: Prof. Yossi Mizrahi from Ben Gurion University presented the question about factors for success or failure in the marketing of new fruits, whereby university researchers developed the know-how required to grow and market about ten exotic fruits (among them pitaya, kobo, marula, and Indian prune).

 

Other lecturers spoke about the challenge in developing brands for fresh produce from the farmer’s standpoint, such as “Uncle Moshe’s” potato.