THE geographic state you live in could determine your vegetable preference.
Western Australians have a penchant for brassicas, while Queenslanders are keen on fresh salad. Victorians, it seems, love their leafy Asian vegetables.
The insights were released from global information company Nielsen, which looked at who was eating what, across Australia, in terms of vegetables.
The Hort Innovation-funded project, Harvest To Home, (delivered by Nielsen) indicated that some fruit, nut and vegetable industries recorded up to a 12.2 per cent increase in dollar sales growth for take-home purchases in the year to November 3 2018.
In that time, eggplant (up 17.1pc) and cabbage (up 12.7pc) had the greatest growth in volumes purchased by Australian households.
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Over this same period, market trends recorded for Western Australia show significant increases in the take-home purchases of cauliflower (at 25.3pc dollar sales growth and 11.4pc volume growth) and broccoli (16.4pc sales growth and 10.9pc growth in volume).
Across Australia, households with couples aged 35 years and older and without children dominated vegetable consumption, accounting for more than 50pc of bean, cabbage, leek and mushroom dollar sales.
High income households were also avid fresh produce shoppers, accounting for more than 40pc of total fruit and vegetable dollar sales.
This information helps our growers to better understand consumer preference, and which groups of people are most likely to purchase their produce.
- Matt Brand, CEO, Hort Innovation
Low income households accounted for about 25pc of fruit and vegetable dollar sales.
Hort Innovation chief executive officer, Matt Brand, said the Harvest to Home analytical tool was a valuable resource for both growers and industry at large to monitor consumer trends across the country.
“From the data recorded, we can see which categories are tracking well with consumers, we can see the growth in purchases by Australian households in both dollar and volume terms, the percentage of households buying, and what is trending across the retail market in each state,” he said.
“This information helps our growers to better understand consumer preference, and which groups of people are most likely to purchase their produce.
“It also helps growers to make more informed business decisions, providing opportunities that could assist them to upsell their produce and reduce farm gate waste, and it is a great public resource to track market trends.”
