Knowing the consumer is all important: Woolworths

That's how Woolworths Supermarkets Director of Buying Paul Harker sees business in the wash-up of the pandemic turbulence.

He outlined the key shopper trends Woolies has identified, and the emerging expectations consumers have from agricultural products, at the Australian Bureau of Agriculture Resource Economics Outlook Conference this week.

Mr Harker said understanding the interests people have in products is so important in responding to new consumer habits and suggested the area of plant milk and meat is an excellent case in point.

Plant-based food was a growing segment with consumers, for different reasons, he said.

"For some, it is a decision based on animal welfare. For others is about perceived health benefits," he said.

For others still, it was the thinking that by eating plant-based food they were helping the environment.

That presented a big education opportunity for livestock industries, Mr Harker said.

A lot of stories were waiting to be told around the contribution to a sustainable environment livestock production makes and what actually happens in a supply chain, he felt.

"If you look globally in this space, it's all about eat less but eat better meat," he said.

"That is, reduce the amount of animal protein in your diet but when you do eat it, look for better.

"Better means a lot of different things to people but increasingly it is what people perceive in terms of environmental management, land stewardship and animal welfare."

Mr Harker said the plant-based meat market may not ever be as big as traditional animal protein markets but it was certainly growing - in fact to the tune of around 25 per cent each year.

Three key customer trends playing out in the wake of the pandemic were more planning and less frequent visits, the rise of online shopping and cooking from scratch, according to Mr Harker.

On what customers were seeking from ag products: local, sustainability and traceability.

He said 94pc of Aussies want to support local farmers and believe supermarkets should stock Australian where possible.

Fresh categories are most important when considering Australian-made - fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy.

"Greater trust in our capability to trace products along the supply chain is also very important to customers and we know this is a challenge the ag sector is working more broadly to solve," Mr Harker said.

"For us, a key benefit is to be able to track the temperature of fresh produce at any given time as it has a direct correlation to product quality and shelf life.

"But traceability also allows for quick response to biosecurity and food contamination issues.

"It's something customers are getting more curious about, not just from a food safety and quality point of view but they genuinely want to know more about where their food is coming from.

"We can't solve these things ourselves, we want to work with ag industries to do it.

"Ag is already responding to what customers are demanding but together we can do more."

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