Patrick Holden, the head of the Soil Association, ditched in January as vegetable supplier to Sainsbury’s because his carrots did not meet the chain’s standards, claims in today’s Guardian that the country’s leading supermarkets are so centralised and industrialised that they cannot deliver the local, organic food their customers want.
An aggrieved Holden told the newspaper he believes that he and Prince Charles - axed as a Sainsbury’s supplier at the same time - are victims of the supermarket system's industrial processes and imposed food miles. They were sacked as suppliers of carrots to Sainsbury's at the end of January.
Holden said his products were trucked “hundreds of miles from their farms to a centralised packhouse in East Anglia” before being sent back to his local Sainsbury's stores for sale.
He claims his vegetables were perfectly within standards when harvested, but deteriorated due to the combined effects of long-distance transport, handling to create large enough batches for the machines that wash and polish the vegetables and further storing after processing to create large enough batches for packing, which damaged the carrots and increased their susceptibility to rot. The increased carbon footprint of this process was also pointed out by Holden, who said up to half the crop from the two farms was being rejected in the grading for cosmetic appearance and quality.
Holden claimed his case is typical. "Everyone who has supplied a supermarket own label will have a story similar to mine to tell but most daren't tell it for fear of being delisted. This is not confined to one supermarket. It is the unintentional consequence of the centralised supermarket distribution system," he is quoted as saying.
According to the Guardian, “Sainsbury's acknowledged that dealing with small suppliers is difficult for big supermarkets, but said it works successfully with others and is willing to try to find a solution to the problems of its highest profile organic farmers”.
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