MT21202 - Consumer usage and attitude tracking 2022/23
Key research provider: Fifty-Five Five
What's it all about?
This investment provides a category tracking service to allow various horticultural categories to better understand consumer usage and attitudes and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
The insights gained from this program will seek to answer questions such as:
How do consumer trends and movements in behaviours, usage and attitudes to fresh produce change over time?
How do these trends and evolving expectations of consumers inform future demand opportunities for both the whole-of-horticulture, as well as individual industries?
What perception metrics drive usage and purchase?
What are the barriers to brand/category salience and purchase and how do we overcome these to drive future growth?
The program will also examine the effectiveness of Hort Innovation marketing campaigns to determine how salient they are in market, what their impact is on consumer usage, attitudes and future purchase intent, and how effective they are at driving messaging comprehension and enjoyment.
Please note this is a cross fund project, many different industries pay into this project.
MT21004 - Consumer behavioural data program
Key research provider: Nielsen
This multi-industry investment is tasked with providing regular consumer behaviour data and insight reporting to a range of industries, through the Harvest to Home platform (www.harvesttohome.net.au).
The platform has a dedicated dashboard for each commodity, making data and reporting easily accessible for industry participants.
The information is intended to assist growers and supply chain partners in decision-making for their businesses and, for the wider industry, the data and insights will be available to support strategic activities.
Project outputs
MT21201 - Consumer usage, attitude and brand tracking (pilot program)
Key research provider: Fifty-Five Five
This pilot program is providing a category tracking service to allow various horticultural categories to better understand consumer usage and attitudes and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The initial phase of the program will run for three months to ensure that the continuous tracker runs effectively, after which a longer-term program will be put in place.
The insights gained from this program will seek to answer questions such as:
How do consumer trends and movements in behaviours, usage and attitudes to fresh produce change over time
How do these trends and evolving expectations of consumers inform future demand opportunities for both the whole-of-horticulture, as well as individual industries?
What perception metrics drive usage and purchase?
What are the barriers to brand/category salience and purchase and how do we overcome these to drive future growth?
The program will also examine the effectiveness of Hort Innovation marketing campaigns to determine how salient they are in market, what their impact is on consumer usage, attitudes and future purchase intent, and how effective they are at driving messaging comprehension and enjoyment.
MT21003 - Consumer demand spaces for horticulture
Key research provider: Kantar Insights
This investment is identifying and prioritising opportunities to engage consumers and build demand across the domestic market for fruits, nuts and vegetables. It will deliver a framework that can be used by industry to inform their decision-making around product development and marketing campaigns. The project team will compare the current ‘state of play’ against identified opportunities and prioritise based on potential impact.
The framework will be informed by research into:
Current market landscape and competitive dynamics
Consumer segmentation
Consumer occasion-based needs
‘White space’ opportunities where consumer needs are currently unmet.
MU20001 - Mushrooms and their potential health benefits of lowering blood cholesterol
Key research provider: CSIRO
This project is generating scientific evidence on mushrooms and their ability to lower blood cholesterol.
At present, high-level health claims, authorised by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), show that the β-glucan from oats or barley has a direct impact on lowering cholesterol. The same β-glucan molecules in oats are also in mushrooms, however they differ in structure. The project is working to compare whether the β-glucan in mushrooms has the same blood lowering effects as the β-glucan in oats.
Findings from the research will inform whether a health claim on mushrooms and blood cholesterol lowering can be authorised by FSANZ.
MU20003 - Educating the food industry about Australian Mushrooms
Key research provider: Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association
This investment is delivering evidence-based information about Australian mushrooms to health and food service professionals in Australia. By improving the awareness, knowledge and attitude of health professionals to the nutrition and health benefits of mushrooms, they will be encouraged to recommend mushroom to their clients, or include mushroom in their menus, and ultimately help to drive purchase and consumption.
The project team will undertake a range of activities, including:
Engaging with key decision-makers from top tier commercial and institutional catering organisations to discuss the inclusion of mushrooms in
Providing educational material to culinary schools, mushroom growers, food service professionals and dietitians. These educational resources will improve understanding of mushrooms, as well encourage confidence and proficiency at using them.
Developing case studies that showcase the health benefits of mushrooms
Updating culinary school curriculums to include the nutrition, health and culinary uses of mushrooms
Participating in food industry professional conferences to further promote mushrooms
Conducting farm tours to connect health professionals to mushroom growers.
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Over the last four months, the research team have focused on food industry research which will be used to form the strategic plan for the project. The significant outputs of this period included the partial completion of phase 2 of the Food Industry Insights Report, with nine one-on-one food industry Key Opinion Leader (KOL) interviews completed, the commencement of a food industry market research poll (survey), and the completion of the project communications plan.
Although partially completed, the one-on-one KOL interviews and market research polls have delivered significant quantitative and qualitative insights into the sector, which will be used to inform the strategic plan for the project in the next phase - case study interventions with high quantum of influence organisations. Insights gathered from the KOL interviews to date have been collated and summarized under five key territories: health centricity, knowledge, nutrition issue/challenges, usage (barriers and drivers), and communication (what and how). Initial findings were shared with the Project Reference Group (PRG) group in May.
With economic challenges in the food industry and labour shortages as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, securing one-on-one KOL interviews have been more difficult than expected and has caused delays to the completion of phase 2 of the Food Industry Insights report and project milestone. Nine KOL interviews have been achieved within this reporting period with the remaining interviews scheduled for June. Subsequently, the Food Industry Insights webinar will be presented to the mushroom industry in July/August.
Despite this challenge, the project team have succeeded to develop a solid database of food industry health professionals and identify significant opportunities for case study interventions within the institutional catering sector, to build the foundations that will underpin the strategic plan for the project.
MU17002 - Educating health professionals about Australian mushrooms
Key delivery partner: Nutrition Research Australia
This education program is all about delivering research and information on the nutritional benefits of mushrooms to Australian health professionals including dietitians, nutritionists, GPs and more. The project team is bringing together the latest science on the health benefits of mushrooms, and using this for the development and dissemination of evidence-based messages and tools. The ultimate goal is to equip and empower these health professionals to in turn motivate their patients and clients to include mushrooms in their diets.
Apart from reviewing and consolidating research, specific project activities will include a revamp of the health and science section of the www.australianmushrooms.com.au website, presentations at relevant professional conferences, the distribution of materials such as brochures and e-newsletters, and other engagement activities for health professionals such as webinars and an expert roundtable event.
Project Outputs
Final Report