Among the fresh milk and aged cheeses, the eggs for cooking later and the drinks for sipping now, there’s a wealth of opportunities in the dairy case.
In the past year, customers have been gravitating towards quality products, says Quality Food World General Manager Yossi Merimi.
“Due to numerous lockdowns, people have been cooking at home more and experimenting with new ingredients, different cuisines or even just indulging more with premium products, such as international cheeses,” he says.
“We’ve seen an increase in sales of our dairy case portfolio throughout the past year.”
Mr Merimi’s advice for retailers is to offer a variety of high quality products.
“We urge retailers to try our bulk sizes and offer taste tests to the end consumer where possible,” he says.
“Also, due to the increase in home cooking, it’s important for retailers to appeal to home chefs. This could be achieved by offering engaging content – for example, how to make an impressive cheese board for your guests. We supply all sorts of inspiration to the retailers to assist with the promotion of our products.”
Organiccs is another segment filled with opportunity. Barambah Organics CEO Matt Stanton points to the increasing consumer appeal of its organic products.
“As a brand, Barambah Organics has experienced our biggest ever year, with double digit growth,” he says. “The pandemic made consumers focus more on wellbeing and sustainability, so that has boosted the demand for organic dairy products, as organic farms use 45 per cent less energy and 20 per cent less water than conventional ones.”
He says demand for organic food has been growing by 13 per cent a year for a decade, with an extra half a million Aussies buying organic food in the past year alone.
However, he believes that this is “only half the story”, with Australia needing to lift its organic game to realise the potential of the sector.
“If you look internationally, Australia is lagging a long way behind Europe and North America,” says Mr Stanton.
“I’ve read a lot in the media about how the organic sector is booming, but it’s off a very low base. As a country we all need to be doing so much more to support organic farmers, or else their businesses will struggle.”
Read more about the dairy case and how brands are keeping fresh in the June issue of Retail World.