Browsing through press cuttings over the last week, both in trade and national media, I have once again been struck by the dichotomy which continues to exist between multiples, and producers and distributors, despite the regular use of words such as partnership to describe their relationships.

Reports indicate that the Christmas trading period turned out far better on the High Street than anyone in the sector hoped. On paper, good news for one, you might assume, means profits for everyone across the entire, complex supply chain that makes up the modern fresh produce industry.

But this hardly squares up with the fears expressed by the French apple and Spanish citrus producers - and there will clearly be others who are less vocal - that many growers are now living on a knife edge.

The basic conclusion is that the point has been reached where product is simply too cheap. The multiples’ knife, which has been paring off the fat over the years, has not only reached the flesh but cut into the bone.

I have every sympathy with producers who, over the last decade or more, have been forced to create a whole new layer of management covering things such as technology. Times have moved on considerably from the occasion only a few years ago when I was at a conference extolling such IT skills and a Solomon in the audience observed: “Surely our real job is to sell fruit!”

Subsequently, growers have given me examples of the difficulties that they face over the years.

These have ranged from battling with buyers who - with little or no experience - are keen only to make their mark and move on to the out-of-hand rejection of produce after many months of so called mutual research into product development. And all regardless of the cost.

Of course the other side of the coin is that growers have cried wolf before, some will say. There may well be casualties, but such is the price of democracy and a free market, others will argue.

The difference today however is that with fewer and fewer players left in the arena, the industry may already be moving into a new cycle.

The arrival of French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish nationals from across the Channel to become fruit importers is probably considered ancient history by some, and certainly they have now become a fully integrated part of the modern trade’s colourful fabric.

If price remains paramount in the retail mind a new generation from eastern Europe, South America and even China may be considering packing their suitcases and making a similar journey to their European forebears, simply because production costs of a far wider range of crops are much lower.

In fact, listening to the many languages spoken in packhouses, fields and orchards today, the vanguard may already have disembarked.

Topics