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Sustainability isn’t the same everywhere

A marketer for an international food processing company says sustainability efforts do not look the same in every country.

Ryan Baraniuk says, “Different places in the world are in different spots. The consumers are in different spots when it comes to sustainability.”

Baraniuk who handles Canadian marketing for Arla Foods.  He tells Brownfield Arla’s core markets in Europe see people making purchase decisions based on the sustainable nature of food packaging and production, and if they can link the food product to processing and on-farm emission reductions. 

Baraniuk says consumers in developing countries don’t usually base purchasing decisions on sustainability. “The consumers, say, in South Africa or southeast Asia, or maybe Bangladesh has to make a decision whether they’re going to pay two or three dollars extra for that product or not, it’s not as top-of-mind in that that decision making.”

Baraniuk says in North America, sustainable food production is very important with the younger group of buyers. “The millenial, the Gen Z group, those are people that really are looking for that impact and making sure that both on-farm and the brands and the processors are really doing a good job of that because they will make purchasing decisions about that.”

He says if the food production system doesn’t take steps now to become more sustainable, the industry risks its future by turning away from what will become the primary buyers of food products.

Baraniuk was a presenter at the recent Professional Dairy Producers Dairy Insights Summit in Madison, Wisconsin.

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