They are fresh, sweet and affordable but Aussie shoppers are avoiding fruits like pineapples because they are too “inconvenient”.
Growers fear the time it takes to cut up a piece of fruit and clean the mess off the chopping board is behind flatlining sales as consumers shift towards a culture of convenience.
John Zelenka is surprised that more Australians aren’t consuming the fruit fresh. (ABC News: Ashleigh Bagshaw)
Despite a growing population, vegetable growers are also watching consumption go backwards, weighed down by what the industry says is a “misconception” that produce is too expensive in high cost-of-living conditions.
It is a trend experts say, is not just a problem for farmers but has ongoing implications for the health of the population and the economy.
Unappealing peeling
Based across two hubs of Yeppoon in central Queensland and Beerwah in southern Queensland, Australia’s largest fresh pineapple supplier Tropical Pines packs more than 10 million fruit annually.
General manager Anthony Dobson said consumption lifted in the 1990s and early 2000, but since then there has been no growth.
“Even though the population is increasing, we’re not really seeing our consumption of pineapple increasing,” he said.
Further north at Alligator Creek just south of Mackay, grower John Zelenka struggled to understand why more people did not try fresh pineapple.
“The flavour is much better and you can enjoy the experience, it’s very nutritious and it’s a fruit that is very universal in what you can do with it,” he said.
As Australians grapple with being increasingly short on time due to issues like poor work-life balance and problematic technology use, Mr Dobson said many consumers considered pineapple too hard to eat.
“The need for convenience and fast food, our industry hasn’t adjusted to that change,” he said.
“We’re still selling a product exactly the same way we were 25 years ago, but our consumers are changing.”
Mr Dobson said new generations of shoppers were choosing not to buy something they saw as “messy” and requiring a lot of preparation when only about a third of it was edible.
“I think there’s a lot of younger consumers out there who don’t want to put the effort into doing that,” he said.
“They’d much rather pay the money to have a product that’s already done for them.”
With many Australians “time poor”, Australian food manufacturers are having to find new ways to market their product to customers. (Supplied: Unsplash, LinkedIn Sales Solutions)
Mr Dobson’s concerns were echoed by research and development body Hort Innovation, which found in its 2023/24 pineapple marketing campaign snapshot that “only 5.5 per cent of households express a desire to buy pineapples”.
Its 2022–26 pineapple strategic investment plan also noted the main barrier to consumption was “the effort required to prepare the fresh fruit and the perception that there is a lot of waste when removing the skin”.
Convenience shopping
Avoiding foods that take too much prep time is an issue, according to retail, marketing and consumer behaviour expert professor Gary Mortimer.
“Convenience certainly drives purchase behaviour in supermarkets and grocery stores today,” he said.
“You only need to walk into your major supermarket, generally at the front of the store is pre-prepared meals and in the fresh produce department you’ll see cubed celery, cubed pumpkin.
“I think people are time-poor and we see brands try to respond to that marketing challenge.”
Gary Mortimer says the desire for convenience is driving what shoppers buy in the supermarket. (Supplied)
Dr Mortimer, who worked for some of Australia’s largest food retailers before joining the Queensland University of Technology, said any fruit considered tough to eat could fall victim to the trend.
“Pomegranates are another great example, simply because they’re hard to extract the seeds out,” he said.
“The same thing goes with kiwi fruit — it has a fine skin that has to be removed.”
Dr Mortimer said some, like the pomegranate industry, were investigating ways to add value such as juicing and freeze-drying to lift sales.
He said farmers were also using platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to educate consumers.
“What we will see is farmers having to really connect with younger audiences and use different types of platforms,” he said.
“Gen A and Gen Z are very drawn to authentic social commerce.
“I think a quick check would find already some great little quirky videos that may only be one or two minutes long that show how to prepare a pineapple quickly.”
Fruit is not the only fresh food facing an image problem — vegetables too suffer from declining consumption rates.
Research from AUSVEG, the peak body for the vegetable, potato and onion industries, shows 93 per cent of Australians do not eat enough veggies.
Chief executive Michael Coote said the average was 1.8 serves, about a third of the daily recommendation of five serves.
“We have some recent industry research that’s shown that one of the key barriers to purchase for vegetables is the perception of their high cost,” he said.
“However, the average cost of a serve of vegetables is only 65 cents for about 75 grams.
“That actually makes vegetables a lot cheaper than a lot of popular snack foods.”
The impact of declining consumption on human health and the industry was so concerning, farmers and health officials have teamed up to encourage people to add one extra serve per day.
“That would add an additional $4.7 billion to the [agriculture] industry and the national economy,” Mr Coote said.
“More sales equals more viable and profitable farming businesses, meaning more growers actually stay in the industry.
“It’s good for Aussie growers, it’s good for the Australian economy, and it’s good for Aussie’s health.”
Mr Dobson said pineapple growers were still working on how to solve the issue, but value-adding, education, and quirky social media campaigns were all on the table.
But ultimately, he believed it would come down to finding more “convenient” ways for Australians to consume pineapples.
“We’re looking at the evolution of cold-pressed juice, smoothies and dried pineapple.”
“The product that we have out there is not suited to everybody in the market and that’s where we need to come up with some other ways of getting that product to market.”
