A major slice of the UK pesticide industry’s marketing and PR budgets should be re-directed away from the farmer and towards the consumer, a Hampshire farmer has told the British Crop Production Council’s sixteenth International Plant Protection Congress.
For many consumers pesticides were second to only to terrorists as the scourge of the modern world, Simon Browne of Meyrick Estates, Headbourne Worthy, near Winchester said. “Yet, how can this be when pesticides help to deliver consistent quantities of good value food that is by virtually any definition, safe?”
The pesticide industry had done very little to engage with the people that ultimately buy the end result of their products – the consumers of food, he said.
“Marketing and PR budgets should only be in part directed at the farmer. A much bigger slice should be re-directed at the consumer, first to gain an understanding of how they think, and second to begin to gain their confidence again from the disastrously low point at which we stand now.”
Farmers would be blamed for rising food prices as concerns about food supply became a reality, he pointed out. “Already it has been predicted in one major national newspaper.”
But understanding what consumers wanted and what would give them confidence would help the industry produce products that suited those requirements, he explained.
“And in the process we could potentially add value along the entire chain, and also severely limit the opportunity for competitors to take that market share if we are able to close the supply chain loop.
“If we as an industry can develop that consumer understanding we may stand a chance of taking their opinion with us as circumstances change.”