Fruit Sector Strategic Management: An Exploration of Agro-food Chain Actors’ Perception of Market Sustainability of Apple Innovation

Abstract

The fresh fruit industry is a highly dynamic sector in the food market. Fresh fruit chain actors have to adapt to the changing market environment in order to face upcoming challenges. The objective of this study is to analyze the market sustainability of red-fleshed apples (RFA) by exploring consumers’ and fresh fruit industry experts’ and stakeholders’ opinions in Italy and New Zealand. The study was carried out in Italy and New Zealand from December 2018 to June 2019 including 778 consumers and 29 expert and stakeholder interviews. Results show a promising market potential of RFA. Innovative attributes and nutritional value of RFA are the most important factors that push consumers’ interest and willingness to buy RFA. New Zealand consumers and women show a higher appreciation of RFA. The nutritional value of the fruit can be a strategic marketing management attribute especially for health-conscious consumers. However, experts think the market for RFA will develop slowly, and will remain a niche product. Some stakeholders are skeptical about consumer RFA appreciation, and fear that RFA are too radical a novelty on the market. The RFA may be perceived as not natural. There is the need to coordinate food chain stakeholders’ management practices on RFA. This allows to mitigate risks, set food standards acceptable for all chain stakeholders, and make sustainable economic investment on innovation.

Driving Management of Novel Foods: A Network Analysis Approach

“…The fact that novel foods markets may depend on consumer willingness to try (Grahl et al, 2018) these types of food may explain numerous studies on what may increase novel food acceptance (Golbabaei et al, 2020;McCarthy et al, 2020;Barone et al, 2021). In fact, a lack of consumer propensity creates consequences on the market that could not develop largely in that sector (Jacobsen et al, 2014;Menozzi et al, 2017;Perrea et al, 2017;McCarthy et al, 2020;Zanetti et al, 2020).…”

“…3. This became even stronger in the case of food neophobia, defined by some authors as the unwillingness or refusal to eat, or the tendency to avoid, new foods (Martins et al, 1997;Tuorila and Hartmann, 2020;Zanetti et al, 2020), or general aversion to new food (Coderoni and Perito, 2021), or fear of trying new foods (Marberg et al, 2017). In fact, several researchers studied from what food is neophobia derived (Jang and Kim, 2015), who are affected by it (Okumus et al, 2021), etc.…”

“…4.1 Regarding the first strand, a part of the literature argued that novel foods may offer additional nutritional properties, compared to food products in general, with positive effects on human health (Ramprasath et al, 2015;Mancini and Antonioli, 2019) for consumers careful to these aspects. This consideration is assessed as an element of strategic marketing management for health-conscious consumers (Zanetti et al, 2020) and finally as a tool to reach consumers and direct them toward the consumption of novel foods. In addition, other studies reinforce this thesis by arguing that the spread of nutritional information about therapeutic features (Sidali et al, 2019) may reduce food neophobia related to new food and increase the willingness to try (Park and Cho, 2016;Zanetti et al, 2020).…”

“…This consideration is assessed as an element of strategic marketing management for health-conscious consumers (Zanetti et al, 2020) and finally as a tool to reach consumers and direct them toward the consumption of novel foods. In addition, other studies reinforce this thesis by arguing that the spread of nutritional information about therapeutic features (Sidali et al, 2019) may reduce food neophobia related to new food and increase the willingness to try (Park and Cho, 2016;Zanetti et al, 2020).…”

Innovation as a Factor Increasing Fruit Consumption: The Case of Poland

“…New varieties of fruit are introduced to the market, with unusual form, flavor and higher nutritional value than traditional fruit [ 4 , 5 ]. The market offer is diversified by visually appealing fruit mixes [ 5 ], as well as tasty and convenient fruit snacks [ 6 ].…”