International

The consumer�s lifestyle dictates over the whole meat industry

Portioning, packaging, preparing and selling the final product is now regulated directly by the consumer as the lifestyles embraced by different generations are setting new trends for the whole meat industry.

Posted on Apr 19 ,06:22

“Experience from the German market shows that consumers are getting older; eating more outside the home; eating
ideologically or in line with religious beliefs, and their diets reflect individual values as they attempt to optimize their physical and mental performance”, concluded Carola K. Herbst from the DLG’s (German Agricultural Society) Food Competence Center after Anuga FoodTec 2018.

Back to the roots

Is not only the Germans that are setting new trends for the industry, a reshape of the global market is underway
and businesses must adapt to the consumer’s desire or they will disappear. Convenience, eco-friendly and healthy,
along with the search for new experiences, are the new requests that producers and retailers are forced to respond.
“The supermarket chains are going back to the roots, even in Germany. That means they increased their in-house
production of fresh meat and fresh products”, explained Thomas Hagmeier, Managing Director at Kolbe Foodtec, in
an interview for EuroMeatNews.
Globalisation and urbanisation processes are now shaped by the specificity of each region and even if the young
generation is copying a western lifestyle in its eating habits, the products must respond to some other characteristics than a decade ago. That could be a real danger to the brands that do not have the power and the will to adapt to this new reality, thinks Cyrille Filott, Global Strategist - Consumer Foods Rabobank.
In his opinion, the strategic changes are to follow in the next five years could range from select investments in iconic brands to even the disposal of some of these global brands.

A new business model

The companies must adapt to some of the most significant key drivers in the market: consumer preferences that are shifting at an unprecedented pace, personalization of products and an increased
demand for local food, believes Fillot.
Those things require from companies to adjust their structure so they can operate closer to the consumer, to adopt
smart technologies in order to focus at the same on 7 billion targets and to operate in every important local market
so they can respond to the need of local products expressed by every important community.
“These drivers mostly relate to the marketing of food products. If we shift our focus to products and brands, we
find ourselves in the middle of the rise of small brands. According to our analysis, large brands have lost share in 60% of food categories in the US and 70% of food categories in the UK, with small brands gaining the most. Historically it made a lot of sense to build these brands and to support them all over the world with marketing spend, among other things. But now that the game is changing”, notice Cyrille Filott.

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