South African supermarket shelves have an extraordinary number of things to put on bread. What we don’t seem to have is much that is genuinely new.
The spreads category is growing, but walk down the supermarket aisle and the same old suspects stare back at you: peanut butter, jam, marmalade, mayonnaise, cheese spread, Marmite, Bovril, liver paste, fish paste and, increasingly, chocolate spreads.
As far as I can see, there has been little innovation in South African spreads for years.
Products that once gave the shelves a bit of character have disappeared or been reduced to much narrower ranges. Rose’s, for example, once had a much broader presence in marmalades and preserves. Today its range is considerably more limited.
What the market has gained is chocolate.
One wonders how so much chocolate spread is arriving on the market at such competitive prices. Maybe economies of scale, global overproduction or aggressively priced imports.
Peanut butter is one of South Africa’s great food products. The country eats huge quantities of it and has well-established local manufacturers.
But quality can vary considerably, particularly with imported products. Peanut butter from India has pronounced oil separation.
As for fish spreads the range is small. Think Peck’s Anchovette. A local manufacturer has introduced a tuna spread in small tins.
A speciality product such as tuna in metal squeeze tubes from Spain can only be found in delicatessens in Johannesburg. But this is not a mainstream product.
Supermarkets offer limited versions of liver paste but most are underwhelming. Woolworths liver-and-onion spread failed to impress. Escort and Renown liver pastes are not particularly tasty.
The liver spreads made by German butchers — or the excellent Heartslief products from Namibia — are in a different category but pricey.
The spreads market is growing. Yet the supermarket shelves seem conservative. There is little that makes you stop and think: That’s interesting. I’ll try that.
Big manufacturers can’t afford to experiment. Too risky. They have to watch nimble operators. When something takes off, they step in.
A small food manufacturer, specialist deli or home industry doesn’t necessarily need to compete with the giants on volume. It needs to make something people crave.
The spreads market may be growing. But innovation is spread thin.
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