Memorandum submitted by Professor David
Hughes (A 58)
DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE DOMESTIC
AND INTERNATIONAL
FOOD MARKETS
— two most important factors influencing
nature of food products on the retail shelf in 2010 are household
disposable income (will it grow as in the past?), and technology
(often, developed outside the food industry but having an enormous
impact on this industry; eg micro-wave oven technology coming
via the space industry);
— current consumer megatrends are:
— household demographics (various);
— convenience (directly linked
to demographics);
— food for use other than fuel
(eg pleasure, status);
— clearly price is an important determinant
when shopping, but, it depends on the shopper. Other attributes
of food products (other than low price) include:
— more esoteric aspects relating
to animal welfare, environment and fair trade;
— organic, (a manifestation of
the concern about safety);
— ingredients and their impact
on health etc.
— easy to focus on supermarkets, but,
"traditional" supermarkets losing "share of stomach"
to other and emerging routes to the consumer;
— international trends? Northern Europe
very similar to us. Developing countries, however, will depend
on income level and income growth rate. If both are moving upwards,
then, more meat consumption in prospect—implication is that
there will be increased pressure on international meat and feed
grain supplies.
25 January 2002
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