The fresh produce industry's Chep working group has warned that the sector must support itis getting closer to achieving its aim of a nil price rise for responsible users of Chep's pallet services following recent meetings.
"We are trying to gt a nil cost rise for those responsible users, but for that we expect Chelp to provide a much-improved, consistent, accurate administration process and more efficient service," said Fresh Produce Consortium chief executive Nigel Jenney (FPC).
The working group is made up of representatives from the Fresh Produce Consortium, the Processed Vegetable Growers Association and senior management from Chep.
The fragmented nature of the fresh produce sector across Europe continues to pose problems for Chep which are compounded by an irresponsible attitude among some traders who provide inaccurate information about their usage.
Chep now proposes to introduce an activity-based pricing architecture as a European strategy and the industry Chep working group is keen both to run industry trials and for feedback from the sector.
"The introduction of ABPA restructures the allocation of cost in a very different way, although the historical activity declared by the industry has been used to calculate the overall financial impact.. If these activity declarations are inaccurate, this may lead toe allocation of significantly greater charges which may be unnecessary if the real activity could be identified," said Jenney.
In response to PVGA/FPC concerns Chep will undertake confidential trial evaluations with businesses to review historical activity against current activity.
"It is absolutely vital that we find a responsible way forward," said Jenney.
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