Hold firm and harvest right

than this time last season, still maintained an average of 87 per cent consumer acceptability.

While penetration rates remained similar to December 2021, of the 213 households surveyed, Angela said responses revealed a “polarised” experience, indicating a lack of consistency in grape quality.

“It seems that we’ve seen a polarised experience in the early season to December 2022. We’re getting a few more people saying they ‘extremely liked’ their green, red and black grapes, but in contrast, particularly in the red and green, we’re losing more consumers that said that they liked the grapes ‘moderately’ or ‘very much’. ”

Consistency is key

Kitchener Partners is the project lead in the table grape minimum maturity standards adoption project, funded by Hort Innovation with the table grape research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government.

Tristan Kitchener, of Kitchener Partners, spoke about the importance of maintaining consistency across table grape consumer experiences.

“Competition is increasing across the dessert fruit category,” Tristan said. “Other categories, such as berries, mangoes, stone fruit and cherries, are improving their offer to ensure consumers have a consistent eating quality. Berries have also significantly increased in supply volume, with extremely competitive pricing –blueberries are retailing at 3 punnets for $5 and strawberries are $2/ punnet, compared to grapes typically retailing at $9.98/kg this season.”

The project team said that early season consumer acceptance can have a flow-on effect through the season, as it can be difficult to change consumer sentiment and encourage customers to purchase grapes if they have had a negative eating experience previously.

What does that mean for growers harvesting or about to harvest? Every bunch of grapes counts when we look to maintain consumer trust, loyalty and repeat purchase. Ensuring 80 per cent of grapes meet the minimum maturity standards in a representative sample is an essential factor in achieving greater consistency.

Early season results show that green grapes fell short in their flavour balance and size/shape; red grapes fell short in flavour balance, taste, firmness and crunch in varying degrees; while black grapes had a much better performance, only falling below the acceptance threshold on firmness.

Combining Nielsen’s consumer feedback with in-field testing preand during harvest and store testing, the project team has developed a strong method of determining grape performance at various parts of the season, enabling growers to correct issues found in the early season.

“Part of the reason for in-field testing is to say, ‘how do we prevent immature fruit from ending up in a supermarket or an independent and resulting in a consumer having a negative experience’," Tristan said. “By conducting in-field testing prior to harvest and sharing that data across the industry, we can help ensure the industry is aligned and provide a clear incentive for growers, suppliers and retailers to not harvest fruit too early before it’s of the correct maturity and eating quality. If one party harvests too early it damages the season for everyone.”

Data across the project has shown that when consumers have a satisfactory eating experience, they’re more likely to repeat their purchase, increase their purchase volume, and stay in that category for longer periods of time, even if there is competition from other fruit categories.

While the team has identified some challenges with consistency, no customer complaints regarding eating quality had been identified, according to one retailer.

“No news in that world is good news”, said the retailer, when asked if there had been any complaints lodged.

Hold firm on maturity

Technical lead Andreas Klieber, of Quality Associates, who manages the in-field and store maturity data analysis, acknowledged the importance of getting the message out there and holding firm on the maturity standards.

“The last two seasons have been difficult for growers regarding maturity. Consumer sentiment dropping this season highlights that industry needs to continue to work hard on providing a consistent product,” Andreas said. “We want to make sure the message gets out there. We need to hold firm on these maturity standards so we don’t encourage consumers to switch into other categories that may be more competitive.”

Project’s final year

The table grape minimum maturity standards adoption project is in its final year and will finish at the end of the current domestic season.

As the industry dives into the final season of the project, it’s important to reflect on the data, resources and results of the past five years.

“After this season, the onus will be on growers to utilise the tools and resources developed as part of these maturity projects, in order to help uphold the industry’s reputation in the dessert fruit category,” ATGA CEO Jeff Scott said.

“We’ve spent the better part of almost six years now, working with the project team, alongside all of the major retailers, Nielsen IQ and producers, dedicated to raising the bar for table grape consumer acceptance, and the industry has come a long way.”

“Historically we have tracked about that 80 per cent consumer acceptability on a consistent basis. Last year due to climatic factors it dropped down to about 70 per cent mark. This year is probably an even a tougher year climatically, and we are again seeing a reduction of acceptability to 70 per cent on white and red grapes,” Tristan added.

“But while there are climatic and production challenges that we recognise growers are facing, there is still opportunity for producers to succeed in meeting the consumer acceptability rate this year. In-store monitoring data and on-farm testing has improved visibility of fruit maturity and ultimately consumer satisfaction. ‘Good data’ enables ‘good decisions’ and is particularly important during challenging growing seasons, as we have experienced over the last two years.

"A ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ and for future years it will be important for the grape industry to develop a solution to ensure the gains that have been made over the life of the project are not lost, particularly given the increased competition from other fruit categories.” v