So the latest Plimsoll line is that the fresh produce industry needs to shed 9,400 jobs in 12 months merely to remain competitive.
Every argument about inefficiencies in the supply chain can be brought round to the supposition that suppliers can cut back, reduce their staff levels and reduce their margins to appease their customers.
I might be blind to the obvious, but it does not appear to me there is that much slack.
It doesn’t take an idiot to work out that the margins of suppliers have been cut to ribbons. Compare the profits, as a percentage of turnover, at the biggest retailer in the land, Tesco, and arguably the biggest fresh produce supplier in the land, Mack. Then tell me where the slack might be.
Yet Mack has not had a bad year -many would pay good money for returns of that order. The largest customers can afford to cut staff levels because they are passing the responsibility for stocking their shelves down the line. The companies that supply them are doing significantly more work for far less financial reward proportionally.
You could argue they were overpaid in the past. You could not argue against the fact that they are being undervalued and devalued now.
At the other end of the chain, the AWB continues to increase the wage burden on growers. Now, it does take an idiot to work out that growers in an industry under enormous pressure can afford to pay vast additional sums every year to employ a temporary workforce.
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