Australia
January 17, 2014
Over one third of vegetable consumers have added Chinese and Thai to their cooking repertoire in the past five years, according to research involving over 500 people released by AUSVEG today as part of an ongoing vegetable industry consumer research project.
“Asian cuisines, specifically Chinese and Thai, were the most common addition to consumers’ cooking repertoire over the past five years,” said Andrew White, Manager of Industry Development and Communications at AUSVEG.
As part of the detailed research on consumer vegetable purchasing, consumers were asked which cuisines they had added to their cooking repertoire in the past five years that use fresh vegetables as a main ingredient.
“Chinese and Middle Eastern cuisines were more likely to be adopted by older consumers over 45 years of age, whereas Thai, Mexican and French were more frequently adopted by younger consumers between 18 and 24 years of age,” said Mr White.
“Some of this popularity could be attributed to influence from our early immigrants."
“The objective of the study is to highlight opportunities for vegetable growers to create products that meet consumer demand, for example, by providing further information on cuisines that consumers don’t know a lot about in relation to incorporating vegetables,” said Mr White.
The top 10 cuisines consumers have added to their cooking repertoire in the past five years, with vegetables as a main ingredient, are:
1. Chinese (44% of those surveyed)
2. Thai (35%)
3. Italian (29%)
4. Indian (23%)
5. Mexican (19%)
6. Vietnamese (16%)
7. Greek (16%)
8. Middle Eastern (13%)
9. Japanese (10%)
10. French (7%)
AUSVEG is Australia’s leading horticulture body representing 9,000 vegetable and potato growers. The research project has been funded through HAL using the National Vegetable Levy and matched funds from the Australian Government.
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