Ron Lemaire, president of the Canadian Produce marketing Association, spoke with The Produce News about how the Canadian produce industry has adapted to COVID-19 and those that have gone above and beyond to make sure food is delivered.

“The real heroes are the field workers that are getting the product out, and the people we are really forgetting are the truck drivers,” said Lemaire. “They have really had a challenge relative to closing of truck stops and access to washroom facilities, yet are pushing through to make sure the product gets delivered. The retail clerks making sure people can get into stores, those are the real heroes and I want to thank them all.”

The Produce News: How has the Canadian produce industry adapted to the changing marketplace caused by COVID-19?

Ron Lemaire: The industry has adapted and reacted quite well in delivering food to Canadians. That links into two pieces, domestic and international. A big thank you has to go to not only to domestic producers in the supply chain, but also the global level, particularly the United States as our No. 1 export and import partner, to make sure we can access fresh fruit and veggies in a cost effective and expedient manner in order to deal with what some worry could be a food security issue that we were facing.

A lot of those concerns are in the back of everyone’s mind, but I have to say how we reacted and how this industry is moving forward is reducing some of that anxiety.

The next step that comes is continual delivery so that we can continue to see growth.

From a retail perspective we are seeing growth in Canada, which is fabulous. Because of the behavior of consumers — call it hoarding, call it target purchasing — segments of the produce industry have benefited at retail. There has been 8 percent growth on veggies and 5 percent on fruits sales since the onset of COVID-19.

How do you continue to service and drive the growth?

The consumer is very interesting right now. They are looking for ways to make sure their food is safe. Packaging is becoming a very key component. They are finding trust in packaging and there is a level of trust with retail and with food manufacturers and how we have handled the situation, which is a very positive outcome.

How the food industry has been able to adapt and put in place the right protocols so the public is feeling relatively safe when they go shopping is key. Shoppers are still going in with a very targeted, focused shopping behavior, which does hurt some of the impulse buying, but we are hoping as we slowly become accustomed to this new normal, and as restrictions are slowly pulled back we will see a transition back to the some of the behaviors we are used to seeing from the Canadian consumer.

Which produce items are selling best?

We are seeing parallel habits here in Canada that are happening in the United States. What’s really interesting is it’s the staples, products people feel they can bring home and store. They aren’t really a storage item, but bananas are doing well too.

All of this has a potential upswing. The upshot we see coming out of the pandemic is that we have introduced new cooking skills with Canadians because they are at home.

The big opportunity here for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry is in making sure we are feeding Canadians the information they need on how to handle their fruits and vegetables in the kitchen.

What is being done to help in that area?

Groups like our CPMA dietician and the Half Your Plate program has messaging going out where we are trying to educate Canadians on how to best get through the pandemic, especially with the sensitivity around their pocket book. We are going to see some Canadians thinking twice about what they are spending because we now have a high volume of people who may not be working or working at reduced level.

All those pieces come into play in generating awareness as people think, “hey I have this much money in my budget, what am I going to purchase and how am I going to prepare it.”

So yes, right now the staples are key but the opportunity to go bigger than that if we do it right, to support health, which is an underlying premise.

How have shopping patterns changed?

Through the research we have done around the pandemic, targeted shopping is key. There is a reduction in store visits but there are larger baskets leaving the store. That’s why the consumer is looking for longevity in their foods.

Part of that longevity comes from packaging, which is interesting, because we are heavily involved in plastics strategies and reduction, and what we need to do reduce our environmental footprint.

Now the consumer has swung a little bit the other way and is saying, “I want to make sure my food is safe,” recognizing that the coronavirus can’t be transferred through food, though there is still a view, not a significant one, but a view that unpackaged food is a potential challenge.

This is moving people toward bagged salads and wrapped product. Having said that, home meal replacement is down, because people are not at work, they are not picking up a quick lunch or dinner on the way home.

How important is the health aspect of fruits and vegetables?

Consumers are looking for ways to be healthy and their food is their way to get there. People have been isolated in Canada for more than six weeks. Gyms are closed and while people can get out and walk, there is a health drive, “how do manage my overall health?” Food is a key component of how to do that.

Looking at where we can go as a sector, there are couple of pieces that we have to balance, we have to recognize the mindset that Canadians are going through. They are feeling overwhelmed, they are anxious, there is anxiety on when will the isolation process end.

Finances are also an issue. The government has done a great job with funding, but it will run out. How will we mange driving some of those changes so people see fresh produce, not as a significant cost, but an opportunity to be healthy, to prepare food at home, to stretch the budget out and feel safe in what they are eating.

Talk about the impact COVID-19 is having on foodservice.

Foodservice, obviously, has been significantly hit and anyone shipping to foodservice is collateral damage. That is a sector that we need to look at.

Some can be repurposed and packaged and sold to retail. The big piece is how we can support the industry as we move into a reset. As restriction loosen up, what do we need to effectively kick start the foodservice business, not only to support the restaurants and distributors that are fundamental for our economy, but also the vendors.

How has COVID-19 changed the logistics of the CPMA convention?

We will be offering all of our learning lounges that we were going to be delivering through trade show floor, virtually. Sessions will be done live and we will also have the annual general meeting on May 13. Usually we transition from our chair to our incoming chair. The format will be different, obviously, but we will have two days of open elections for vacancies on our board, then we will let membership know the new board of directors and that board will meet last week of May to conduct business at that point and they will appoint the incoming chair Davis Yung.

We will also be running new product showcase and sending that to our retail distribution list.

The virtual platforms are never going to replace the face-to-face meeting that our business thrives on. The hands on approach is needed in a perishable industry, where the product talks more than anything else. We are going to do our best to enable a virtual world for now, but we are ramping up and ready and prepared to get back into the market with a face-to-face grass roots strategy.

The market has done a great job virtually, but the produce industry is built on person-to-person interaction.