You sometimes hear the expression ‘There’s no accounting for taste’. Taste is definitely personal, but many aspects of taste can be quantified with flavour research. Flavour is more than just sweet, sour, bitter and salty. The way consumers assess flavour is based on an interplay of taste, texture, feel, smell and sight. All of these elements are connected to each other. And each one can influence the other. This makes sensory research into flavour a complex and very challenging task.

Sweet, not hot!

Sensory research into the flavour of our varieties and consumer surveys are a permanent feature in the organisation. You are probably familiar with our sweet pointed pepper Sweet Palermo®. Available in red, yellow, orange and ‘chocolate’ colour. For the introduction of Palermo RZ, consumer research was also conducted alongside extensive flavour research. Although it is clear to us that it is a sweet pointed pepper, this is not self-evident to consumers in all countries. The shape of the pointed pepper can be associated with a hot pepper. And if a product in the supermarket raises questions or ambiguities, according to the laws of consumer behaviour this is ‘a barrier to purchase’. We want to avoid this. We now clearly position Sweet Palermo as ‘sweet’ in our marketing communications. In this way, we use insights from consumer research in more product launches.

Kilos, kilos and more...

From Sweet Palermo now back to ‘the old days’. For a long time, Dutch growers sold their products through auctions. At the auction, tomatoes and cucumbers were examined by an inspector who determined the quality class. Many kilos and a high quality class meant more income for the grower, although it also mattered how many tomatoes were offered at the auction at that time. It was an era in which growers, traders and also breeders mainly focused on high production values and a long shelf life. The collapse of the tomato market in Germany in the 1990s caused a turnaround. A kilo of tomatoes yielded less and less at auction. It involved a chain of events. Growers were increasingly picking greener crops to save costs and work more efficiently. And traders and supermarket buyers also wanted this to ensure a longer shelf life and less damage. Until the consumer got tired of tomatoes that lacked the flavour they were looking for.

The chain: Grower, retailer, consumer

The introduction of IKZ (Integral Chain Care) in 1993 marked a shift in thinking. There was pressure from the retailer for more refined breeding with the consumer in mind. Flavour, colour, uniform ripening and a better shelf life therefore became more important in our breeding programmes. The truss tomato was also introduced at this time, which was the starting signal for greater diversity in the vegetable section, with different sizes and shapes. Growers were quite open to growing other varieties but wanted to be sure of their sales in response to this change. Moreover, tomatoes were now harvested when ripe, which meant that they had to be in the supermarket within two days. Growers therefore sold their products directly to the retailer, without the intervention of the auction. As a result, Rijk Zwaan also started holding talks with supermarkets. Together with growers, we visited supermarkets in Germany to ask consumers what they thought of the tomatoes. This is how the network between Rijk Zwaan, the grower and the retailer started.

Across borders

The collaboration with retailers and growers was a success. The supermarket purchased better, tastier tomatoes, and the consumer was satisfied. The demand for a year-round quality vegetable supply increased. This meant exporting lettuce and tomatoes from Southern Europe in the winter. For Rijk Zwaan, it meant looking at how we could adopt a similar approach with growers in Spain, Morocco, Egypt, the Canary Islands and Italy. Rijk Zwaan was already active throughout Europe at that time, which was a major advantage. Colleagues from our branches in Southern Europe also adopted this chain approach. It was not an immediate success. We didn’t always have good varieties for these countries, and the shelf life also had to be right – from Southern Europe to Germany, the vegetables from harvest to delivery to the supermarket were on the road for at least three to four days. Yet this was the start of ‘chain management’, for which we are now famous as a company and this work continues worldwide with our colleagues today.

Consumers discover our Salanova lettuce in a Malaysian supermarket

Innovation

The shift towards consumer-oriented thinking and innovation come together in our Retail Centre in Berlin, which opened its doors in 2017. This is where we welcome retailers and growers from all over the world. In the Retail Centre, we simulate the fruit and vegetable department of a random supermarket and test different display arrangements. Launches such as Knox™, Salanova® and Sweet Palermo are examples of where we really focused on the requirements of the entire chain during the launch. Setting up our own professional flavour panel for flavour research is the next step. A group of colleagues in The Netherlands have been trained to assess the flavour of our varieties in a structured and objective way. This enables us to respond even better to the requirements of customers and consumers.