Consumer Foods to Go

RaboResearch went to Germany to attend Anuga, one of the largest food trade shows in the world. In this episode of the Consumer Foods-to-Go podcast, Maria Castroviejo, Cyrille Filott, and Marjolein Hanssen review Anuga and share their findings from the event. The three discuss the innovations that were noticed, the things that were missing, and general observations. Topics include plant-based prod...

Consumer Foods-to-Go brings insights into the topics that should be top-of-mind for any food executive and the topics that should inspire us to think differently. This podcast falls into the latter category. We have always been fascinated by Japan and Japanese shopping and eating culture. In this episode, we explore  konbini  –  convenience (food) shopping in Japan. We believe Japan is ahead of ma...

Climate change impacts business. Business impacts climate change. Many food companies are taking responsibility and setting targets to achieve lower emissions for their products in the near term and even zero emissions in the long run. Most of these emissions happen in companies' supply chains, outside of their direct control. The key challenge food companies face: how to make change happen in the...

In this episode of Consumers Foods-to-Go, we put the food manufacturing plant in the middle and perform a deep dive into the logistical processes around it. There are two major streams: the goods coming into the factory and the goods leaving the factory for distribution centers. In both cases, we are witnessing much higher prices for logistics. Together with Matteo Iagatti, Maria Castroviejo and C...

Consumer Foods-to-Go covered plant-based meat substitutes in two episodes in the last few years, but it's such an important topic in consumer foods nowadays that we believe we should do a third. This time we focus on Asia, as we are hearing a lot of stories about the growth of plant-based meat substitute products there. To discuss the topic, we invited our own Michelle Huang, who brings a Chinese...

Inflation is, or should be, at the top of any board room agenda. Developed markets have not seen much inflation in the last decade, but now it seems to be back. In this episode, host Cyrille Filott and co-host Maria Castroviejo discuss the drivers of inflation with Michael Every, strategist at Rabobank. One of the key drivers of the current inflationary pressure is the bullwhip effect, where suppl...

One-and-half years ago we released a Consumer Foods-to-Go podcast called Nutri-Score: A, B, C, Easy as 1, 2, 3... Or Is It? about a front-of-pack nutrition label. Now, some European retailers are trialing another front-of-pack label called Eco-Score that focuses on the sustainability of a product. It works in the same way as Nutri-Score: A for top of the bill, E for bottom of the pack. We believe...

Working from home or, better still, working from anywhere will not go away for office workers post-pandemic. Many companies have already announced that a hybrid way of working, with a split between work in the office and work at home or another place, will be normal. As a result, office workers will change where they buy lunch, whether it's in offices or at a place near home. In this episode, Cyri...

Food delivery has taken a firm piece of the foodservice pie during the pandemic. When some sort of normality returns, a bit of those revenues might slip away. However, we expect delivery to remain very important in foodservice. This begs the question: what should restaurants do in an environment where one in ten, or perhaps even one in five orders are going to be picked up by a rider? In this epis...

The foodservice sector has obviously been hit by the pandemic, but it is time for the sector to look ahead. A lot of positive momentum is building across the globe, so it's time for Consumer Foods-to-Go host Cyrille Filott to quiz his colleagues Maria Castroviejo, Michelle Huang, and Amit Sharma about the foodservice sector. A quick reflection on 2020 is in order, but most of the time is spent on...

Every year Nick Fereday sends out a survey asking a couple of simple questions to the readership of  Talking Points . This year the questions were: "What has changed in food?" and "What has not changed in food?" The answers this year were much more diverse than in previous years, showing that much is still unknown. During the  podcast , Nick shares with hosts Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott s...

Plant-based foods are top-of-mind for consumers and food companies alike. The market for plant-based products is not steady by any means — a lot of change and growth is ahead of us. In this episode of Consumer Foods-to-Go, Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott interview Lindsay McCorkle, lead banking officer for plant-based protein at Rabobank, on these changes. She will talk about many trends, inc...

During the pandemic, online purchases of fresh food really took off in China. While there are some similarities with how US and European consumers buy fresh food online, we notice some distinct differences. First and foremost, Michelle Huang, analyst at Rabobank, expects 30% of all fresh food will be bought online. This is at least partly to do with the fact that food retail in China is not as dev...

One of the key developments on the back of the current Covid-19 pandemic is the accelerated adoption of e-commerce. One part of e-commerce that has grown is direct-to-consumer e-commerce, in which food and beverage producers ship directly to the consumer. Direct-to-consumer means that large platforms, aggregators of products, and retailers are being bypassed. However, many questions have been rais...

In this episode, Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott discuss our 2021 global commodity outlook and the impact potential price changes (spoiler alert: they're going up!) will have on the food sector. And we're joined by a special guest this time: Stefan Vogel, Global Strategist – Grains & Oilseeds at RaboResearch.

This week we partnered with our sister podcast, Liquid Assets, to discuss how bars, restaurants, and manufacturers have survived Covid-19 thus far and how quickly they can recover (fingers crossed) once the pandemic is over. Listeners of Consumer Foods to Go will love the work done by the team at Liquid Assets . If you are interested in the latest trends in the beverage industry, you can subscribe...

During the current pandemic, ordering food for consumption at home has taken off beyond anyone's wildest dreams. However, the delivery platforms through which consumers order food (still) do not make money. In this episode of Consumer Foods-to-Go, Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott question Marjolein Hanssen on how the economics of these platforms work and what she expects platforms to do in the...

In early 2019, we recorded a  podcast  on the role of plastic packaging in food with supply chains strategist Susan Hansen. Since then, the world has changed because of Covid-19, and, as Susan says in the  podcast , it has been a very interesting time for plastics. The use of plastics in retail has increased, and consumers' attitudes toward plastic have changed due to fears of contamination. In th...

In the last few years, a lot of money has flowed into ghost kitchens across the globe. Interestingly, India and Southeast Asia have been leading the charge, with, for example, the number of ghost kitchens in India growing from 200 to 1,500 in 2019. In this episode, Cyrille Filott and Maria Castroviejo quiz Rabobank's Umesh Madhavan on the growth of ghost kitchens. They talk about the flexibility o...

In May, the European Green Deal's 'Farm to Fork Strategy' was announced. Among other things, the deal in general strives for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. The farm-to-fork part is much more specific, spelling out the use of antibiotics and nutrients in farming, along with nutrition on the consumer level. So high time for Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott to roll up their sleeves and engage...

At the end of May, news reached us that Brian Sharoff, president of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), had sadly passed away. Brian led the PLMA for almost 40 years – and as loyal listeners might recall, we interviewed him for our 'PLMA Live' episode, which we launched after the 2019 Amsterdam PLMA show. For this new episode, in memory of Brian, Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filot...

As loyal listeners to the podcast know, we have spent a lot of time thinking through what might change in food as a result of the corona crisis. The previous episode was dedicated to purpose-lead business. This episode is dedicated to Nutrition. Maria Castroviejo and Cyrille Filott invited Nard Clabbers of TNO to discuss the future of nutrition. Nard Clabbers is one of the leading authorities in t...

We at Rabobank believe that we will see some profound changes in food in the post-Covid environment. One of them is that food companies may move (further) toward becoming purpose-led instead of being driven by financial returns. This is an important change of the primary focus, and as a result, strategies may change as well. In this episode of Consumer Foods-to-Go, Cyrille Filott and Maria Castrov...

Fresh fruits and vegetables were performing well in foodservice up until the Covid-19 crisis. However, the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent closure of a lot of restaurants led to demand crashing for some products, whereas other products sold really well. But even in that period, "weather was more important than Covid." This is a quote by Cindy van Rijswick, Rabobank's resident fruit and vegetabl...

Europe and the US are on the verge of ending lockdowns, and, in some cases, have done so already. For restaurants, this is an exciting time, but for food retail, perhaps less so. In China, lockdowns ended a few months before the rest of the world. Therefore, we believe it is helpful to have a look at what lessons can be learned from China. Maria and Cyrille quiz Rabobank colleague Michelle Huang o...