HORTICULTURE levies should be pooled and spent on a fruit and vegetable marketing and education campaign to lift demand, says agriculture strategist Dr David McKinna.
Dr McKinna, a partner of market research company McKinna et al, in Melbourne, urged horticulture peak bodies to take a united approach to the issue affecting the viability of all members - the failure to give consumers what they wanted.
He said consumers wanted a product that tasted good and that they should be educated about product selection, storage, preparation, seasonality and origin.
Dr McKinna said fruit and vegetable sales in Australia were not matching population growth.
Market share was being lost to packaged snack foods such as muesli bars and yoghurt, which were ready to eat and offered consistency of quality and taste.
"The reality is that Woolworths and Coles sell and buy 60 per cent of horticulture products on average," he said.
"They determine how the industries are run: what varieties are grown, the supply chains.
"Even if growers are not supplying them, Woolworths and Coles set the industry standards.
"They want farmers growing things that suit their marketing - a product that presents well and has shelf life - but not necessarily one that tastes good or performs.
"The other aspect is no consumer education; consumers are buying the wrong product, cooking it the wrong way and as a result eating less of it."
Dr McKinna said horticulture should follow Meat and Livestock Australia, which had used consumer research to successfully boost meat consumption, and prices, by lifting the standard of meat quality and consistency.
"How many times do you get a tomato that's rotten in the middle or tastes bad?" he asked.
"MLA tackled those things head on, and it's paid off."
Dr McKinna said horticulture marketing and promotion activities were handicapped by the current system, which required grower levies to be segregated by Horticulture Australia and spending determined by committees with little marketing expertise.
There are more than 40 industries, 36 peak bodies and 28 levies, which provide funding for marketing and research for horticulture.
According to its latest annual report, HAL received levies totalling $30.9 million in 2007-08.
HAL spent $63.8 million on research and development, $10.3 million on marketing and $9.8 million on operating costs.
The biggest marketing spend in 2007-08 was $2.2 million on macadamias, followed by $2 million on apples and pears, with zero spending on marketing activities for 26 of the 44 industries.
Dr McKinna said there was no reason fresh produce could not be sold using the strategies that worked for grocery goods.
