Consumer interests are greater than those of suppliers in the eyes of the Office of Fair Trading, delegates to the Re:fresh Conference were told yesterday.
Speaking at the event, Bob MacDowall from the OFT’s markets and policies initiative division, offered suppliers little comfort and urged them to use the systems set up by the supermarket code of practice.
“It’s not a popular point, but suppliers do have to overcome their fear of complaining. It’s not something we can help them with, other than generic advice, we can’t do it for them," he said.
Somerfield’s technical solutions director Stephen Ridge also had some tough messages for suppliers, discussing the complexities surrounding the ethical issues on supply, both at home and abroad and also highlighting the need for the industry to tighten up the game on pesticides - not just aiming to stay below MRLs, but to aim for residues below the level of detection.
He also touched on the subject of Somerfields partnership with the Fresh Produce Consortium to develop a purchasing policy.
A review of the opportunities and challenges facing the fresh produce industry in the convenience store and foodservice sectors was give by Costcutter’s Jamie Davison, Brakes’ Stuart Smith and Tesco’s Peter Durose.
Both Davison and Durose told delegates fresh produce was a key driver in the battle for the convenience market, while Smith said Brakes fruit and vegetables offer was helping it to grow its share of the foodservice sector.
A rallying call to the industry to improve the famously bad Scottish diet was given by Gillian Kynoch, Scotland’s food and health co-ordinator.
She called on the industry to meet the challenge to convert awareness of the benefits of eating fruit and veg into changes in eating behaviour. “Five a day for us isn’t just a campaign, it’s what we’re looking to achieve. My question to you is, are you up for it?”
Michelle Smyth from Which? singled out Sainsbury’s voucher campaign to buy school sports equipment for praise and talked about the need for more responsible marketing of food to children.
With efficiency a serious issue throughout the industry, Peter Whitehead, from the Food Chain Centre, and Trevor Dear from Greenvale AP, were on hand to talk delegates through the benefits of benchmarking, supply chain analysis and lean thinking.
The conference was rounded off with a panel discussion featuring the IGD’s Nick Everitt, John Smith from Greyfriars, Elaine Alexander from the South African Table Grap Industry and Mark Newton, from Florette.
Moderated by Charlie Crow, the panel discussed the three issues they felt were impacting most upon the industry, with topics such as competition, price, branding and the need for clear and concise communication with consumers all being flagged up.
For further indepth information from all the speakers at this year’s conference, see next week’s Journal.
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