Transportförpackningar och marknadsföring av frukt och grönt inom dagligvaruhandeln : en pilotstudie i Sverige och Tyskland

Abstract: The logistic business Svenska Retursystem AB was founded by the Swedish retail sector in the year 2000, and their introduction of a grey plastic crate to the supply chain for perishable goods changed the situation for the swedish horticultural sector. The new system revealed several challenges to be tackled by all actors, from the small family firm to the bigger organisations. Whereas the initiative comes from the customer himself, from the horticultural sector ́s point of view, a refusal of the new packing is a hard decision to take. It is however interesting that a comparison between the two systems, shows in favour of the corrugated board boxes, not only concerning environmental aspects but also for economical and ergonomical reasons. An issue are also the private brands, retail chains use to gain more consumer loyalty to the store sites. In order to keep the surplus values Swedish produce can still rely on, marketing gets yet more and more important. A main objective for this thesis was to compare Swedish and German food distribution to observe similarities and therefrom summon future marketing possibilities for Swedish horticultural products. German producers have since long been forced to adjust to an extensive discount trend and increasing influense by the retail sector, which is the rising tendency in Sweden. Especially German producers ́ and the German state ́s work with origin- and quality brands was found valuble in this matter. The consumer study confirmed a very negative attitude towards consumer packings, however the esthetic impression and a cheap price could prove too tempting to resist. Quality and freshness remain the most important features when buying fruit and vegetables though. Concerning Swedish origin brands, it was shown that these are not perceiced to a very large extend but rather the Swedish origin as such.