Archived press release

British fruit growers suffering from supermarket blight

21 October 2002

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 more about the difficulties they face in meeting the specifications of the supermarkets for the appearance of their fruit, 38 responded and full details are available [1]. We found 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 believes that many of the reasons for rejecting fruit would not be of major concern to most consumers. They include:

• fruit that has minor skin blemishes,
• apples that are either not red enough or are too red,
• fruit that is too big or too small,
• pears that are the wrong shape.

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. We believe that consumers would rather have the choice to buy fruit which comes in a variety of shapes sizes and colours than to see it go to waste.

Key survey findings include:

• Supermarkets reject apples and pears for a variety of reasons which have nothing to do with the eating quality of the fruit, for example colour, non-harmful skin blemishes, shape, size and hail damage.
• One grower had a whole crop of apples rejected by the supermarkets even though the fruit was still good to eat.
• Rejected fruit is likely to go for processing (resulting in a lower price for the grower) but in many cases it is simply wasted, left on the tree on the orchard floor or dumped.
• Even cooking apples get rejected due to cosmetic standards despite the fact that they will normally be peeled.
• Supermarkets go beyond the already strict standards for cosmetic appearance set out by the EU and they buy very little Class II fruit, a standard which allows more flexibility in appearance and size.
• The appearance standards have got more demanding over the last five years making it harder for growers to comply with them.
• Supermarkets’ pre-occupation with appearance is forcing growers to use more pesticides on their fruit
• Growers find it difficult to compete with the appearance of imported fruit.
• Fruit also gets wasted because supermarkets don’t give enough shelf space to British fruit, because they change orders or cancel them at the last minute, and because they delist traditional varieties of home-grown fruit.
• Some growers say the only way to survive is to find alternative ways of marketing their apples
  

Last year the Competition Commission identified 27 practices in the way in which supermarkets dealt 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:

• Support local food initiatives in particular to help growers set up direct marketing initiatives
• Regulate to stop unfair trading practices of the supermarkets
• Set up an independent watchdog to protect both consumer and producer interests

Sandra Bell, Food and Farming Campaigner for Friends of the Earth said
“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’. 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”.

Commenting on the results, John Breach, Chairman of the Independent Fruit Growers Association said:
“Supermarkets now retail the bulk of British apples and pears. But we would like them to do more to help growers market a higher percentage of the crop. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to sell more fruit with small blemishes or fruit of uneven shape, in a wider colour and size range. There are plenty of consumers who’d be happy to be given this choice, rather than see good fruit wasted. Consumers must not be led to expect cosmetic perfection. The British Independent Fruit Growers Association once again will be at the National Fruit Show, to be held in Kent next week, and we do hope that the supermarkets will have time to discuss these findings with us, leading to more flexibility in the future.”

Unfortunately, Friends of the Earth cannot release details of the growers who responded to our survey. One grower told us that they would love to give contact details "but if leaked to supermarkets I would be delisted and so forced out of business".

Notes

[1] Media briefing available on request.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust