Farmscape for March 1, 2018

The Chair of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute says more and more those who produce our food are being called up to answer the questions consumers have about that food.
"Retail and Consumer Trends" will be discussed as part of the 2018 London Swine Conference set for March 27 and 28.
John Scott, the Chair of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, observes large retail stores will sell up to 30 thousand products and that retailer can't possibly know everything about those products but if there's a food safety concern the consumer will expect that concern to be addressed immediately and that has changed how retailers procure food.

Clip-John Scott-Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute:
It used to be that you would come in and sell your food to them and say, I have a marketing plan, I have money to support that marketing plan and you Mr. Retailer and I'm going to put that product in a price range that works for you and your consumer.
It's not enough to do that any more.
You also must be able to answer a whole host of additional questions that are built more on societal expectations.
What are your policies around sustainability, what are your policies around ethics?
What about providence, where does it comes from?
What about any claims that you have with respect to health.
You've seen these.
In some ways the sector has been under fire by different activists over the last few years asking these questions.
What about these products, and how are these going to affect us and what are you Mr. Retailer going to do about it?
The retailer is always going to be on the side of the consumer and so what they're going to try to do is develop a balance between what their supplier is providing them and that consumer.
So you the supplier, you need to be able to answer those questions on behalf of that retailer because if something happens to that product in the store they're going to come back to you right away and we've seen examples of that many times in the last few years.

Scott says, as the sophistication of technology changes and people are more aware of where that food comes from, who's behind it and what's in it, there's going to be more pressure on the primary producer to be able to provide all of those answers.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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