Transportfo?rpackningar och marknadsfo?ring av frukt och gro?nt inom dagligvaruhandeln
en pilotstudie i Sverige och Tyskland
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.