"RETHINKING, REBUILDING AND REVISING THE MUSHROOM INDUSTRY”
Martyn Dewhurst, GM of Tunnel Tech UK introduced the seminar. Martyn had been out in Australia at a conference and the subsequent speakers had been giving a seminar there. He was wildly impressed and enthusiastic about it, and he organized them to come across to UK.
Subsequently CMP invited the speakers over to do two talks; one was in Tipperary on Monday 18th July in Dundrum House Hotel (30 people attended); and one was held in Monaghan on the 19th July in Four Seasons Hotel (65 people attended).
There were a lot of growers and some other assorted mushroom industry types.
The first speaker was Greg Seymour GM of AMGA Ltd (general manager of Australia Mushroom Growers Association) and newly elected executive committee of the International Society for Mushroom Science (ISMS)
The second speaker was Glenn Cardwell- Principal of Nutrition Impact and the third speaker was Michael Brownlee – Principal of Creative Dialogue (Market Research company).
Greg Seymour
Snapshot of Australian industry
Strategic planning
Industry performance table
Grower returns
Basically speaking the Australian Mushroom Industry was in spiraling decline, just as the Irish and UK are at minute - growers were closing down, and many operations were winding up.
They decided that something had to be done. They got the whole supply chain working together to “ Get people to eat more mushrooms”.
They put together a strategic plan, which was as Greg emphatically put it –DRIVEN BY FACTS - obtained by MARKET RESEARCH.
He gave a breakdown of Australian Mushroom Industry:
Australian population 20 million;
Producing 60,000/tonne mush/year – worth an estimate of $ 260million.
52,000 tonne is agaricus production.
97% of business is fresh mushrooms and they import 6,000 tonnes!
75% of total fresh mushrooms go into Retail -30% Greengrocer -70% Supermarket (of which 80% go to two multiples and 20% go to independents) 23% Food service 2% Other Processing
They had been importing a lot of mushrooms from China, canned variety, and New Zealand, but because of reduced demand for mushrooms, and concern for the viability of the industry, they stopped importing mushrooms from these countries!
The mechanism for this importation cessation was not entirely clear.
The AMGA was set up and a voluntary levy is paid by growers, set at 34cent/kg/spawn. A statutory levy introduced by government is taken at 0.75% of wholesale price. This accumulated money goes to Research and Development, Marketing, Crisis Management, Food Safety etc.
They work to increase Return On Investment (ROI) for grower, which in turn increases profit and the way to do this is KEEP DEMAND AHEAD OF SUPPLY.
Knowing your market is essential.
Run your enterprise as a Business (you're there to make money!)
Consumer is king (know what they like / dislike)
Know the players i.e. Supermarkets
Add value to Product
Product fashioned to consumers
Market research
MOST IMPORTANT FACT: In 1998 A KILO of mushrooms were $ 1.98 in the shops- today they are $ 7.99/kilo.
Glen Cardwell
See web page for full nutritional facts. It’s all about educating people to the nutritional benefits of eating mushrooms and in turn boosting sales! The Mushroom People hope to carry a more in depth look at this aspect of the seminar in next month's edition. www.mushroomsforlife.net
(It seemed as though most people thought this was most interesting part. This area has never been explored fully before within the Irish and UK setting).
Michael Brownlee
“Information is power” - Michael has been working with the group for years now as head of Market Research.
In 1990 70% of consumers bought mushrooms through greengrocer and in 1997 70% of consumers bought through supermarkets. Market Research based on:
Importance of positioning
Snapshot of Australian consumer
Using consumer research to direct M and P investment
Using consumer research to measure performance
create a market where demand slightly exceeds supply
develop strong relationships with consumers
improved communication and shared information with supply chain
positive perception with government
Key Objectives
INCREASE PURCHASE FREQUENCY
INCREASE PURCHASE VOLUME
The main form of market research is telephone surveys, and more importantly focus groups. Market Research targets primarily females as they do most of the shopping. Conduct surveys at point of sale also.
Promotional activities performed by Market Research: The group advertises through Media, TV very expensive so they minimize usage to prime slots. They more often use Radio as a form of advertising and run different “jingles” to suit different target groups.
I.e. when barbecues are in season, when mum is picking up the kids up from school. Give articles in health and food magazines. Work with or give “mushrooms” to chefs in colleges/schools to work with. Have innovative restaurant and recipe competitions; have sample recipes cooking in shopping malls or large supermarkets!
The main point is that the whole supply chain worked together to create more demand for mushrooms. Negotiating the price increase with the supermarkets didn’t happen overnight – it was a combination of factual market research and continual communication between AMGA and supermarkets. They had market research to prove that there was no correlation between higher prices and volume of sales/profit.
Something factual based that supermarkets felt was researched well enough and initially they put the price up and volume of mushroom’s sold at that store remained the same and then other stores followed the same model.
The seminars were organised and funded by CMP for the benefit of growers North and South.
