New Varieties - Aug 2002

Everybody likes new. New cars, new boats, new computers are just great. The reason people like new stuff is that they expect it to be better. What about plants and flowers? Retailers want new stuff all the time so the customer will have an exciting new shopping experience. Growers want new varieties that give them a marketing edge. The best new plant for growers is the one that is less expensive to grow.

I decided to ask Ted, our produce guru, about how "new varieties" work in the produce industry. Ted explained that tree fruit must go through extensive testing to determine if the new variety is worth the huge investment the grower would have to undertake to produce it in any volume.

Even if the product were then proven to be clearly superior, there would be considerable resistance from the professional buyer community. The problem was that the new variety would be a little more expensive that the old ones, and would need to be priced differently at retail. This would be confusing to the store and very confusing to the customer. Therefore, only upscale retailers would embrace the improved varieties.

The upscale retailer would make the effort to educate their customer base about the superior qualities of the more expensive product. However, Ted says, if someone improves a yellow squash, it would be an enhancement for the grower and would pass into the market with nobody knowing and no change in price. How does this relate to the floral side of the buisness?

The risk for trying new stuff is all placed on the grower and retailer. Yes, the breeder took a lot of risk and made a big investment in the research and development. Still, too many new things are not better. Too often we try new things and find that they are distinctly inferior in many ways to the item they are meant to replace. In my experiences, when that happens the breeders give little shugs to their shoulders and offer another newer, better variety with the same risk.

In our category of goods, I have to say that less than ten percent of the new, improved plants are better than the stuff available already, and over fifty percent are inferior to exisiting varieties.

As an industry, we are looking at hundreds of new varieties offered by breeders every year. It is impossible to look at all the new stuff coming out. Somehow, someone needs to be a little more judgemental about what is introduced as new and better. It is not credible for the breeding industry to claim that the several hundred introductions made yearly are all better stuff. From the outside, it seems like there is a contest every year for who can claim the largest number of new introductions. The California pack trials look more like a mental and physical endurance contest every year.

New does not always mean better. I think we should demand that stuff actually somehow be better. This does not mean a new color of something old and previously unsvailable has no value. We need to ask quesitons like what does it do better for the consumer? The breeder should make a list of the improved qualities of the plant or flower. This list could be used at store level as a selling tool and for consumer education. Of course as soon as you promise this list of improvements, people will expect the product to live up to the promise. If the product is better and does what it promises, it will lead to a virtuous circle where growers and retailers and consumers will trust and embrace the new and improved promise.

A grower friend years ago told me that he grew new varieties so he could sell his plants first. They were not higher in price than the old plants. They were new and therefore appealing to the retail buyer, satisfying their need for "new".

As growers trying to make our customers happy, we are assaulted by the demand for new. Often our retail buyers get bored with the same old good stuff and demand somehting new. Both growers and retailers get tired of products long before the end consumer does. And the last time I checked? It is those guys that pay us all.