As grocers gathered to talk food trends in downtown Vancouver this week, one trend was clear: shoppers want local, special and healthy.
“As the population is aging, in the sense that 60 is the new 40, people are going online and trying to find ways to reverse aging, slow down aging, prevent disease or soften the impact of a disease,” says marketing and consumer expert Tony Chapman.
“There’s just too much science. It’s not just about simply popping a lot of supplements. They’re actually trying to move towards what they digest.”
Chapman was among a panel of speakers at Grocery and Specialty Food West, held earlier this week at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It’s Canada’s largest specialty food trade show.
Food trends include the move in the marketplace from big box shops to smaller specialty stores, notably supporting local businesses and demanding healthier choices.
Chapman said consumers want to know where the food is coming from. There’s an awareness and demand for “locally grown and locally sown.”
Canadians are willing to change their palate and habits such as eating root vegetables during winter, Chapman said. They also value what they see as the benefits and taste of organic food.
With a technologically driven society where it’s possible to buy groceries online, he said, farmers’ markets has made a big comeback as well. “We also covet and crave face-to-face interaction.
One of the beauties of farmers’ market is meandering through it.”
Smelling and squeezing fresh produce gives a feeling that one is “shopping for Canadian dinner.”
There’s a sense of pride and identity with the decision. “It’s a retro feeling where I’m not bringing in my groceries once a week, not out of the freezer. I’m making things fresher,” said Chapman.
Karen Ageson, director of the Vancouver Urban Farmer Society, sees the local and health-conscious trend increasing, but it requires a lot of work to get the word out. “It comes down to the price of produce and it can be hard because there’s so much else going on in the city,” she said.
Vancouverites have busy lives and busy schedules so they often feel they don’t have time to learn more about what food is available and when and how to prepare it.
Ageson said consumers’ curiosity is growing. “When people go to the store and see produce from far away, like apples from New Zealand, when they know it can grow here, they start to question things.”
That curiosity gets consumers going. “They begin to learn more about farmers’ markets and farming in the city. They see gardens popping up. People see things happening,” said Ageson.
Ageson said there are many different entry points into the local food scene such as wishing to support sustainability, have more face-to-face interactions or have a vision of what Vancouver should look like.
The 37-year-old urban farmer became interested in local food from an environmental standpoint. She studied sustainability at UBC.
“I went on a journey to discover ways to grow food in local ecologies,” she said. “You have to watch the seasons. Pay attention. [Organic farming] is more symbiotic with the environment.”
When she became a farmer, she didn’t expect to do a lot of marketing and educating the public about food choices. “Like any small business, there’s a lot to learn and there’s a lot of marketing involved.”
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