Frozen Food, Dip, Cul-de-Sac or Cliff?
7 09 2007Where is the Frozen Food Industry headed?
I have just read a great book “The Dip” by Seth Godin which is about being remarkable and teaching you when to quit. In the book he talks about three potential outcomes, The Dip were real success comes from, Cul-De-Sac - working towards a dead end (nothing changes), and the Cliff were the whole business falls apart. I am sure Seth Godin doesn’t need another plug but get the book, it’s worth the read.
Why do I mention the book? Because I had a dream that we in the frozen food industry were headed for the Cliff. Let me explain using the 3 outcomes:
Is the Dip a possible outcome? Are we at the point where we are about to throw in the towel before the market takes off? There are many food products from around the world that we in the frozen food industry could introduce to the consumer. How many people have even heard of a mangosteen, the Queen of Fruits? Many of these exotics could be introduce but it is hard and takes time. Corporate America wants profits today they don’t want to count on maybe.
Is the Cul-De-Sac where we are today? The frozen food industry has been stagnant and by that I mean the shelf space hasn’t grown in years. All we do is take old products and wrap them up to try and reinvent ourselves. We take a single vegetable and mix with multiple vegetables and come up with a new item. Or we add protein or a new sauce and sadly try to duplicate ” Asian Fusion”. But the unfortunate part is that we are just playing musical chairs because the freezer shelf space is not growing.
Are we headed for the Cliff? In the food chain the frozen food industry is the most enviornmentally unfriendly in terms of energy and pollutants. It takes tons of energy to freeze, it takes more to hold product in cold storage, and more for transportation especially for the import and export business where containers are moved thousands of miles from continent to continent. Everyday we pick up the paper and read about eating local. We read books, like Jane Goodall’s “Harvest For Hope: A Guide To Mindful Eating“, which talks about the food industry and how it is force feeding the consumer with unhealthy products and that it is time for change.
All this makes me wonder (and wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares), are we just at the tipping point of eating local ly supplied foods and is the frozen food industry about to walk off the cliff? or are we at the dip where innovation is about to launch us into a new era? or are we on the train to nowhere, cul-de-sac next stop please?
My hope of course is we are just in the dip and I continue to dream about all the healthy and wonderful aspects of frozen veggies and fruits, but is it enough?
Technorati Tags: Frozen Food, Seth Godin, The Dip, Jane Goodall, import, export, mangosteen
