focus on... rice & noodles
PB | The Grocer | 10 August 2019 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 10 August 2019 | The Grocer | 41
46 Is rice sustainable?
The impact of rice farming on the
environment is alarming – but
what can be done?49 Kitchen staple
Rice & noodles are typically
a planned purchase, shows
Shopper Intelligence data42 Full-price growth
Promotional activity is falling
across the category and overall
value is still on the riseThe cost of convenience
Rice and noodles appeal to shoppers seeking speed and ease, but
this desire for convenience is coming at an environmental cost
eco-friendly buying habits. So how come
sales are still booming? And what are manu-
facturers doing to lessen the toll rice and noo-
dles take on the planet?
The rising sales are proof of the gap between
what shoppers say and how they behave at
the tills. More than a quarter say they avoid
certain products on environmental grounds,
a rise of 65% since 2016 [Ethical Consumer
Markets Report 2018]. Still, this concern over
plastic waste and climate change doesn’t
seem to have dented appetite for quick meals.F
ew things are quite as convenient
as rice and noodles. Just shove in
the microwave, add hot water or
boil up for a few minutes and –
hey presto – you have the basis of a hearty
meal. That convenience factor is sending
sales soaring. In the past year, the market
has grown 3.7% in value and volume [Kantar
52 w/e 21 April 2019]. That’s the sector’s h
consecutive year of volume growth.
But that convenience comes at a price. A
2018 study by the Environmental Defense
Fund found rice farming accounts for up to
5% of global greenhouse emissions. That’s
double previous estimates. Many rice and
noodle products come in similarly eco-
unfriendly, plastic-based packaging.
It ies in the face of the growing number
of consumers who say they’ve adopted moreRob Brown And the more convenient the product, the
less environmentally friendly it tends to be.
Take instant snacks, many of which come in
plastic packaging. Aware of the dilemma,
many manufacturers have set a goal making
their products more eco-friendly. One of these
is Pot Noodle owner Unilever, which names
plastic “one of the biggest topics surround-
ing the food and drink industry right now”.
“We know this is a concern for our retail
partners and consumers ,” says Hazel Detsiny,
Unilever’s VP for marketing food & tea. So it
has pledged to make all of its plastic packag-
ing, including the stu used for its instant
snacks, “fully reusable, recyclable or com-
postable” by 2025.
Plastic is proving a similar challenge for
rice pouches. A whopping 277.5 million of
them were sold last year, according to our cal-
culations. And not one of the major manfuc-
turers has developed a recyclable pouch,“We have a huge
responsibility to deliver
more sustainable
products”