Home > Campaigns > Real Food > News > October 2002 > British fruit growers suffering from supermarket rules
Home > Campaigns > Real Food > News > October 2002 > British fruit growers suffering from supermarket rules
British fruit growers frequently complain that supermarkets place impossible conditions on the appearance, quality and price of their products. Friends of the Earth sent surveys to 100 apple and pear growers to find out about the difficulties they face in meeting the specifications of the supermarkets for the appearance of their fruit; 38 responded. These show that the demands of the supermarkets are often unreasonable and are leading to wastage of good fruit and to fruit sold at a loss.
Supermarkets say they are keen to support British apples and pears. But the reality is that many growers are going out of business. When supermarkets reject eating apples for cosmetic reasons the grower will often have to sell the fruit for processing at a price well below the cost of production. British growers find it increasingly difficult to compete with cheap imports and they find that supermarkets are not giving much shelf space to home-grown fruit.
Supermarkets like to promote the high quality of the fruit they sell. But Friends of the Earth believe that many of the reasons for rejecting fruit would not be of major concern to most consumers. They include:
Friends of the Earth believes that consumers would rather have the choice to buy fruit which comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours than see it go to waste. An issue that is of concern to consumers is the presence of pesticides in fruit - Friends of the Earth's survey reveals that additional pesticide sprays have to be used to meet the supermarket's cosmetic requirements.
Key survey findings include:
Last year the Competition Commission identified 27 practices supermarkets use to deal with their suppliers that worked against the public interest as well as to the detriment of suppliers. The results of this survey add to the weight of evidence that the big supermarkets are getting too powerful.
Friends of the Earth wants the Government to:
"These results show again that supermarkets have too much power
over our food. Good British fruit is left on the orchard floor or sent
for processing because the supermarkets say its too big, the wrong shape
or even too red," said Friends of the Earth Food and Farming Campaigner
Sandra Bell. "At the same time the supermarkets are importing apples
and pears from around the globe at the expense of British livelihoods
and the environment. Unless the Government regulates the way in which
supermarkets operate and puts money into developing local food economies
our apple and pear growers face an uncertain future."
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