The vegetable industry is not helping itself when it comes to retailer relations and should unite to prevent further
commoditisation of the category.
That was the message from a number of speakers at last week’s UK Onion and Carrot Conference in Peterborough.
Cranfield School of Management’s Séan Rickard suggested that the balance of power between “weak sellers” in the fresh produce industry and the retailers needed to change.
“There will be different kinds of people running the supermarkets in the future; this will be created by the risk of not being able to get the food,” said the economist. “They have had 30 years of quantity and all they had to do was bargain and drive the price down.
“Major players in your industry help keep the threat and make matters worse. You undercut each other and take the loss yourselves. Supermarkets would never do that.”
Kantar Worldpanel communications director Ed Garner said the power in the supply chain could be coming back to producers, adding that “all the retailers are pricing themselves out of the market so it really doesn’t matter [as a consumer] where you shop any more”. But he agreed that the vegetable industry had to take some blame.
“Are onions at risk of becoming a commodity?” he asked. “Tomatoes used to be a commodity, but with different flavours and varieties came price points. Is there any branding potential? Like Albert Bartlett, Pink Lady, Chantenay carrots? If you treat them like a commodity then the retailers will as well.”
Agritec’s Peter Gresty added: “The industry is in a mindset that retailers won’t help, but retailers are having to change. We need to shake these people and tell them that the industry is changing.”
Rickard also highlighted the importance of working in co-operatives and sharing information. “We are so slow and other countries are coming in [to our country] to do it,” he said. “We should be doing it ourselves. It is the profitable route to increasing value.
“Reach beyond the farm gate and down that chain to market the produce. It is the only way to counteract supermarkets. You can tell by the time it has taken to get the ombudsman and the lacklustre approach to it from the government that it’s not going to happen. It is up to you to get more value into your business.”
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