Opening up the third day of the United Fresh Produce Association's BrandStorm 2021 session was the Global Marketing: Trends from Abroad.

This session was moderated by Max MacGillivray of the UK’s Beanstalk Global Broadcast and featured panelists from countries around the world who shared their perspectives on global marketing trends.

The three speakers were Marius Du Plessis, the CEO of Clemengold International, a South African citrus grower and exporter, Alies Padding, an innovation manager for NNZ Inc. based in the Netherlands, and Mónica Moreno Arellano, marketing manager for Grupo PM in Mexico.

Two heavily featured topics were the importance of branding as well as approaches to packaging amid increasing demand for sustainable options.

According to Du Plessis, the brand is the most important part of the job at ClemenGold because “a brand is an identity, a language and a way you speak to a customer”. 

He emphasized the importance of marketing a brand “up and down”.

“What we do a lot, is we spend a lot of time pushing that brand knowledge down to the guys in the packhouse, the guys in the orchards, everywhere in the world. Because the sooner you have that, you have an intuit of the decision-making," he said.

Moreno Arellano elaborated further upon the importance of branding, expressing the opinion that there is a need for more of it.

“I think there is amazing produce that is being grown and that they have their own identity and we need more branding,” she said, “We need to work with the trade, we need to work with the retailers and learn about that branding.” 

“There's education involved, not only on the consumer's side but with the trade. I think importers and retailers need to know and need to leverage that value and learn to appreciate that value. That, in the end, will translate into more sales because consumers are also looking for that extra value.”

In terms of packaging, the conversation focused on the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the push for sustainable packaging as well as the various factors included in determining the best packaging options.

Du Plessis stated that the steps ClemonGold has taken towards more sustainable packaging began about four years ago. However, he added, the arrival of the global pandemic caused more people to start demanding more packaging rather than less.

Still,  he also expressed the opinion that this shift was just a pause instead of a complete reversal saying, “it almost put a pause on this and I'm so happy that today we're actually bringing it to the front again because we shouldn't stop this quest, it's just [that] it's been paused now because of people being maybe fearful or afraid.”

Padding shared this outlook, stating that brand owners and manufacturers in Europe are engaged in choosing more sustainable options. 

However, she also said that different companies will take different routes towards fulfilling this pledge, clarifying that sustainable packaging does not necessarily mean less plastic and explaining the elements that go into determining the best options for a brand. 

According to Padding, packaging must be functional stating “Consumers buy it because they buy the product quality fresh produce.”

“We always say that there's a function that you need to do. If you don't need packaging, don't use it, but with packaging, functionality is of most import.”

It is also important to take factors such as CO2, water, and energy into consideration. Food waste should not be ignored either as omitting packaging can lead to a reduced shelf life which also leads to CO2 emissions. Paper packaging likewise is not always the best solution as water usage is more.

Additionally, she emphasized the importance of effective waste management to avoid plastic waste having a negative impact on the environment as well as adopting a fact-based approach to determining what options work best for manufactures, producers, and retailers.

“So all these details for all different kinds of packaging, talk to a customer and say what do you think is most important? Is it more important for you to reduce plastic? Do you want to move into the recycling area? What fits your brand name?... the answer will be different for different customers.” 

“So we see people moving from plastic to paper or cardboard. We also see retailers saying no we don't use paper or cardboard because we know its CO2 is less, but water usage is much more.”

Whatever the decision, however, the most important point, according to Padding, is communicating why a particular choice was made for packaging.

In this, she was backed up by Moreno Arellano who said “It's not just talking about the product whatever it is; fruit, vegetable whatever, but talking about the packaging...if you're doing something with it and you're doing sustainable packaging and you're sourcing packaging that's not just good for the product, but good for the environment, you have to tell it.”

 “Consumers are not worried only on what they are eating, but [what] it comes from.”