This week’s Channel 4 documentary claiming greengrocers and independent retailers are selling fruit and vegetables up to 35 per cent cheaper than supermarkets is “not surprising”, according to one leading greengrocer.
In the latest Channel 4 Dispatches programme, aired on Monday, it was revealed that a basket of fruit and veg priced between £10.47 to £10.87 at one of the big-four retailers would only cost around £7.30 to £8.27 at a British greengrocer or street market.
“The Dispatches investigation is not a surprise. Just last week M&S was doing two for £4 on Granny Smith apples, which is eight in total, yet if you put eight into my scale it would cost around half the price,” said Andreas Georghiou, owner of Andreas Veg.
Georghiou, who operates two greengrocers in Chelsea and Chiswick, is running a ‘Better, Fresher, Cheaper’ campaign at both his stores to highlight the difference in price between greengrocers and supermarkets, and he has encouraged other independent fresh produce businesses to do the same. However, the documentary – which also claimed that fruit and vegetables were up to 28.9 per cent more expensive in convenience-store versions of big superstores such as Tesco Metro – was full of “silly claims”, according to the British Retail Consortium, which contributed to the programme.
“Smaller convienience-store prices are higher because there are higher running costs so it is hardly a revelation. On the whole, I wouldn’t accept that there is a huge difference on costs as supermarket prices are very competitive,” said the BRC’s Richard Dodd.
In the wake of the documentary, Asda has said it will be rolling out more electronic scales for fruit and vegetables in its stores while Duncan Swift, a food industry expert at accountancy firm Moore Stephens, praised Channel 4 for breaking down the “stereotype” that the fruit and vegetable offer in independent shops is more expensive than major retailers
