Five agrifood innovators share how they score a premium
We often hear about the “cutting edge” or the most advanced technology or product but what about something that’s so radical and un-tested that it’s at the “bleeding edge”?
That kind of innovation can fill a gap in the market and deliver significant premiums but comes with risk.
A diverse group from the agrifood supply chain, both in Australian and export markets, share their insight in developing something new and finding a market willing to pay for it.
by Emily Malone
Regional and rural journalist and communications professional
Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
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Jay Albany, Wide Open Agriculture; Richard Lovell, CP Foods; Natalie Sarich-Dayton, Brownes Dairy; John Foss, Fancy Plants and The Chia Company; and Emma Davison, Fremantle Octopus all participated in panel session, ‘Bleeding edge: Securing a premium' at evokeAG. 2024. It was facilitated by Julie Hirsch, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea (far left). Image | Mr.Wigley Photography.
Agrifood players – Natalie Sarich-Dayton, CEO and Managing Director of Brownes Dairy; Julie Hirsch, Co-Founder, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea; John Foss, Founder of Fancy Plants and The Chia Company; Richard Lovell, Director of Global Procurement and Networking at CP Foods; and Jay Albany, Wide Open Agriculture – explain why innovation, filling a gap in the market, product placement and productive partnerships all play a part in securing premiums.
Taking inspiration from those outside your lane
For Natalie Sarich-Dayton, CEO and Managing Director of Brownes Dairy, there’s nothing like a walk down the supermarket aisles to inspire product innovation.
“By removing the blinkers within your own category, you uncover a realm of opportunities beyond,” she said.
RELATED: Power of provenance: Premium dairy must be more than just different
“We’ve drawn inspiration and innovated from unexpected segments like ketchup, beer, and lollipops.”
The hugely successful launch of a lollipop-like cheese snack, Cheesies, into China, Singapore and soon Hong Kong and Macau is testament.
Natalie Sarich-Dayton, CEO and Managing Director of Brownes Dairy.
RELATED: Power of provenance: Premium dairy must be more than just different
Julie Hirsch, Co-Founder, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea, urged people to consider not just the products produced by other categories, but how they are produced.
“To blend our vitamins with our tea, we actually used a process that’s used in powdered milk,” she said.
“We didn’t need to create something totally new, we just had to look at an industry that wasn’t the same as ours.”
John Foss, Founder of Fancy Plants and The Chia Company, concurred.
“Start with strategic moves and how people eat, live, consume, and then look at how that affects people’s lives in their diets,” he said.
John reminded us that innovation is not a ‘set and forget process’.
“What’s premium today, might not be premium tomorrow. Being on that continual treadmill of bringing the next innovation in front of consumers is important.
Julie Hirsch, Co-Founder, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea.
With more than 20 years of marketing, sales and management with big consumer brands, Natalie said there’s one key element in food innovation.
“At the end of the say we (Brownes Dairy) sell food,” she said.
“If it doesn’t taste good, forget it.”
Understanding the market
Richard Lovell, Director of Global Procurement and Networking at CP Foods, an integrated agro-industrial and food business based in Thailand, emphasised the importance of knowing the market and encouraging exporters to visit and talk with people on the ground.
“Once you understand priorities, whether it’s clean and green, or whatever it may be and then associate that with that country then you can get that premium,” he said.
“You’ve got to understand that market and there’s no one solution.”
Fremantle Octopus is Australia’s largest octopus fishing, processing, wholesale, and export business. Emma Davison, General Manager, said it’s important to understand the culture of an export market.
John Foss, Founder of Fancy Plants and The Chia Company.
“Once you enter a market it’s extremely hard for a branded product to then go back and re-invent itself, so making sure there is no buyer’s regret is extremely important” she said.
“Make sure that your product is offering something different and that you’re going to be able to provide stable growth in that market.”
John also urged people to consider placement, pointing to the premiums in something like a Whole Foods Markets, where consumers expect to spend more for a quality product, compared to a supermarket.
“Sometimes people get really focused on premiumisation of the product,” he said. “But you’ve got to have the right product, in the right place, with the right partners, to be able to achieve that.”
Premiums and partnerships
Jay Albany, CEO*, Wide Open Agriculture (WOA) explains that networks were critical in developing the business’ regenerative and ethical food platform, Dirty Clean Food. [*Jay was CEO of at the time of writing. The new CEO of WOA is Andrew Skinner.]
“I think it’s unique across the world in that it has scaled, direct, regenerative farm produce to consumers every day through delivery in your house, in grocery stores, and in some of the best restaurants,” he said.
“But it started off with one person and one person’s friend and one farmer and a growing network of finding people who believed in that niche.”
RELATED: A sweet future for Australia’s biggest plant protein crop
Jay Albany, CEO, Wide Open Agriculture.
Emma agreed with Jay’s sentiment, “Partnering with the right people with the same ethos as yourself and believing in the story is critical. You are going to have struggles and it’s not going to be perfect straightaway and you need that partner to be able to work with you.”
Does sustainability pay?
With a business model based around regenerative agriculture, Jay said consumers will pay premiums for sustainability but he’s not sure how long it will last.
“The younger generation in particular have more awareness, and certainly right now it feels like there’s a way to charge for that,” Jay said.
“The premium for organic has declined over a couple of decades and the challenge for sustainability will be what happens over the next 10-20 years.”
RELATED: Supply chain sustainability: why, how, and what does it mean in reality?
John said consumers are motivated by a ‘for me versus for we’ proposition.
“I think a lot of people want sustainability for ‘we’ as in for the world to be better. But when it comes to purchasing decisions it’s ‘for me’ as in ‘have I got something nutritionally better for me and it’s at the right price point?’
Julie described sustainability as an interesting marketing play but not necessarily a sales play.
“Our market research has shown that only 3% of consumers are willing to purchase a product based on ethics, but a significant portion are willing to talk to their friends about a product if it’s sustainable, or ethical.”
Natalie Sarich-Dayton, CEO and Managing Director of Brownes Dairy; Julie Hirsch, Co-Founder, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea; John Foss, Founder of Fancy
Plants and The Chia Company; Richard Lovell, Director of Global Procurement and Networking at CP Foods; Jay Albany, Wide Open Agriculture; and Emma Davison, Fremantle Octopus all participated in panel session, ‘Bleeding edge: Securing a premium’ at evokeAG. 2024.
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