Aljan de Boer, Trends Active at the 14th International Conference «Fruits & Vegetables of Ukraine-2017. Success in Unity»

Presentation: Global trends in the fruit and vegetable sector: What does a new generation of consumers expect from fruit and vegetable growers? Aljan de Boer, Strategy & KeyNote Speaker at TrendsActive, the Netherlands

To anticipate on the future, the agricultural industry needs to understand future consumers. Millennials - people between 20 and 35 - drive changes in consumptions habits and embrace digital technology. But where do these trends come from and how to they affect our industry? We’ve invited Aljan de Boer from TrendsActive to help us better understand our future consumers, employees, and competitors.

"When I was three years old, I could use the rotary phone to call my grandmother. When I was ten years old, e-mail was invented. By the time I turned 20 the smartphone had been introduced and I was connected with my friends and my favorite brands 24/7. Millennials grew up in a connected society, which exerts a lot of influence on their behaviour, as well as their expectations of organizations. They use multiple devices and multiple channels to meet their consumer needs. It comes as second nature, because they grew up with it. All that new technology also introduced new ways of working and competing in the agricultural industry.

Living in a globalized and digitalized world younger generations have new expectations when it comes to the food supply chain. Younger generations are networked and interactive, they want to co-create. How do you involve them? When it comes to agricultural and green tech, you're not growing and exporting food, you're increasingly sharing and exporting data. So basically anyone can connect to the network and contribute - and youngsters are naturally good at sharing and using the resources of their networks.

When talking about the future of agri-tech, the most relevant trends to talk about are the two young generations - Millennials and Generation Z.  Out of the 9 billion people living on the planet, how are these two young generations going to to deal with the future? They have an outward look on the world, because of globalization and digitalization. But what does it mean for our industry?"

Aljan de Boer, Trends Active at the IX International conference «Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine»

Presentation: Consumer trends that affect the agricultural business.

How do we feed a population that is projected to grow to 9 billion people by 2050? To answer this question we must understand their expectations and what it means for our marketing and communication. That’s why we’ve invited Aljan de Boer from TrendsActive to present sociocultural trend insights, which are the changing values, needs, and behaviors of people, as well as shifts in society overall, to inspire the agricultural industry to find opportunities for growth.

We are living in a Connected Society where everyone and almost everything is connected. Although humans as a social species have always had the fundamental desire to connect with others, the recent digital revolution facilitating an always-on, always-connected culture has introduced changing behaviours and new trends.

While people are becoming increasingly dependent on digital devices to do all kinds of tasks in their everyday lives, there is a growing recognition of the need to humanize technology. Why does technology need to become more human?  Technology is only useful when it can support and enhance how people naturally think and behave (and not the other way around where people have to adapt to the technology). This has implications for how marketing is done, but also on how an organization is operating, farming, collaborating in its market.

On the other hand, in the current Information Age with all its available technologies and data new opportunities arise for the agricultural industry. From vertical farming, to drone fertilizing, to using social media, digital technologies offer new ways of growing for and connecting with customers. Do you want to know how to seize the opportunities in a Connected Society? Come and visit the presentation of Aljan de Boer from TrendsActive’s during UCAB on December 6.

We are in a trust crisis. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer in 2017 (https://www.edelman.com/trust2017/) we are witnessing the largest decline in trust in all four major institutions (i.e., government, media, businesses & NGO’s). The start of this trust decline could be traced back to 2008 when the Great Recession hit, and since then leading up to 2017 there has been increasing political instability and major corporate and food scandals.

Nonetheless, despite all major four institutions suffering from the decline in trust, it is still businesses that the public trusts the most to make a positive impact. Indeed, people expect businesses and as such, the agricultural sector, to be committed to both increasing profits and improving the economic and social conditions in the communities that they operate in. That said, businesses have a real opportunity to be a leader in making a positive impact and restoring the public’s trust. For a brand to build trust, it needs to pay attention to delivering competency (e.g., delivering functional products or services) and also endorsing benevolence (e.g., building an emotional connection with consumers). Research suggests that one of the ways for brands and organizations to demonstrate benevolence. Especially young generations like the Millennials and Generation Z crave for businesses that show how they benefit society. So how can organizations build trust with their marketing and communications? Come and visit the presentation of Aljan de Boer from TrendsActive’s during UCAB on December 6.

Tracy Cheung, Trends Active at the Workshop at the Embassy

Workshop: Three important sociocultural trends for the agricultural industry. 

The agricultural industry has a big and meaningful responsibility, and that is to feed the 9 billion people that will be living on our planet in 2050. In doing so it must be aware of societal trends that drive new expectations and create new opportunities for the industry. We’ve invited TrendsActive to present their insights on sociocultural trends, which are the changing values, needs, and behaviors of people, as well as shifts in society overall.

There are many trends that affect the agricultural industry but from a consumer perspective, there are three major trends that are particularly important.

Building Trust. Research shows public sentiment is characterised by a lack of trust. In order to rebuild trust, brands and organizations need new ways of marketing and communication. People expect brands to not only focus on economic gains and profit, but that they are also committed to investing and improving the state of society and the environment.

Connected Society. We are now living in a Connected Society where everyone and almost everything is connected. The recent digital revolution facilitating an always-on, always-connected culture has introduced changing behaviors. Furthermore, green technologies and digitalization offer new opportunities for growers and suppliers alike.

Young Generations. Both these trends are largely driven by the changing behaviors, needs of the younger generations. Growing up in a globalized and digitalized world Millennials (20 to 35 years old) and Generation Z (19 year olds and younger) - have new expectations when it comes to technology, and the food supply chain.

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