More than a third of Australian vegetable consumers have added Chinese and Thai cuisines to their cooking repertoire in the past five years, according to research undertaken by vegetable and potato growers’ representative body AUSVEG as part of an ongoing research project.

“Asian cuisines, specifically Chinese and Thai, were the most common addition to consumers’ cooking repertoire over the past five years,” said Andrew White, Manager of Industry Development and Communications at AUSVEG.

As part of the detailed research on consumer vegetable purchasing, AUSVEG said consumers were asked which cuisines they had added to their cooking repertoire in the past five years that use fresh vegetables as a main ingredient.

“Chinese and Middle Eastern cuisines were more likely to be adopted by older consumers over 45 years of age, whereas Thai, Mexican and French were more frequently adopted by younger consumers between 18 and 24 years of age,” Mr White said. “Some of this popularity could be attributed to influence from our early immigrants,” he said.

“The objective of the study is to highlight opportunities for vegetable growers to create products that meet consumer demand, for example, by providing further information on cuisines that consumers don’t know a lot about in relation to incorporating vegetables,” Mr White said.

The top 10 cuisines that Australian consumers have added to their cooking repertoire in the past five years (with vegetables at a main ingredient) were:

1. Chinese (44 per cent of those surveyed)

2. Thai (35 per cent)

3. Italian (29 per cent)

4. Indian (23 per cent)

5. Mexican (19 per cent)

6. Vietnamese (16 per cent)

7. Greek (16 per cent)

8. Middle Eastern (13 per cent)

9. Japanese (10 per cent)

10. French (7 per cent)

The research project has been funded through Horticulture Australia Limited, using the National Vegetable Levy and matched funds from the Australian Government.

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