Understanding customer trust

Goal

Enable Australia’s agrifood sector to develop targeted strategies to become more competitive and attract premium prices in export markets. This will further build Australia’s reputation for producing safe and high quality agrifood products.  We also aim to provide guidance on investment decisions in supply chain technologies. 

Outcome

By understanding what builds and maintains customer trust and associated market insights, Australia’s agrifood sector will be able to:

• Supply agrifood products with customers’ desired food attributes for added value and competitiveness
• Build relevant supporting evidence to give confidence to supply chain stakeholders such as importers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers 
• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Australian agrifood export systems for market access. 

The challenge

Building further trust across the supply chain has never been more important due to increasing international competition to secure and maintain premium markets. High profile food safety and counterfeit incidents relating to Australian food products have imposed further challenges for Australia’s trusted position as a leading source of clean, safe and quality agrifood. 

We know that a high level of consumer, supply chain and regulatory trust is key to our agriculture industry’s success. But it’s not clear what constitutes this trust, making it difficult to invest in the things that really matter to grow it even further.

Our solution

We are supporting the agrifood sector by:

• Developing in-depth customer and market insights relating to trust
• Identifying what really matters in establishing and maintaining trust with consumers, regulators and supply chain actors in Australian agrifood exports 
• Informing development of targeted strategies for specific markets 
• Providing insights that producers and supply chain partners can take to build further trust. 

Key activities and progress 

Examining consumer preferences for Australian beef in key markets

The Australian beef industry needs an understanding of consumer demand and their competitive advantage in order to develop targeted access strategies for key premium markets. 

A new report aims to provide a nuanced understanding of consumers’ preference for beef credence attributes, willingness to pay (WTP) for Australian organic beef and traceable organic beef, and the underlying drivers for WTP. 

In collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), we have surveyed beef consumers in China, the UK and Vietnam. 

Downloads

Summary:

• The premiumisation roadmap: Consumer willingness to pay for Australian organic beef PDF (768 KB)

Full report:

• Consumer preference for beef attributes and willingness to pay for Australian organic beef PDF (7 MB)
• Consumer preference for beef attributes and willingness to pay for Australian organic beef - accessible text only exec summary TXT (9 KB)

Understanding importer demand for agrifood attributes 

To gain and maintain a competitive advantage, Australia’s agrifood industry needs a nuanced understanding of demand for food attributes and how to meet importer expectations and requirements. 

Our 2022 report provides an in-depth understanding of the demand for agrifood attributes and supporting evidence required by importers, wholesalers and retailers in key export markets. We focused on Australian beef and horticulture (e.g. oranges, tangerines, table grapes and cherries) exports to China and Vietnam. 

The 2022 report was developed in collaboration with Austrade.

Download the report

• Demand for agrifood attributes and attribute claim assurance in Australia's export markets PDF (5 MB)
• Demand for agrifood attributes and attribute claim assurance in Australia's export markets - accessible text only exec summary TXT (6 KB)

Regulator trust for agrifood market access and competitiveness 

In order to maintain and grow market access, importing countries must trust Australia’s export system. We’re working to understand what builds and strengthens this trust.

Our report provides insight on opportunities to build trust in the system, how this could best be achieved, as well as areas of vulnerability. This will enable Australia’s agrifood sector to target investments more efficiently and effectively.

Partners 

The Trusted Agrifood Exports Mission is digitally transforming Australia’s agrifood supply chain and growing export premiums across commodities.