So, this week, fruit and vegetables aren’t as good for you as they were last week. Fruit is not as nutritious as it was 50 years ago and the chances of reducing the risk of cancer by eating more fresh produce are no more. Ho hum. Should we worry about the constant stream of claim and counterclaim that surrounds our products? The answer is, I suspect, probably not.
It is ironic that an industry that does so much to enable people to eat healthily and become leaner and fitter is going through so much internal anguish itself, as it attempts to lose its own perceived underbelly of inefficiency.
As the industry rationalises, each time the axe falls the stakes get higher. Suppliers are all too acutely aware that there is always likely to be a competitor ready to take their place at the coalface and when efficiencies are being sought, leaving stones unturned can be fatal.
The stigma of losing a contract is bad enough. But when it is accompanied by a huge financial loss and the fact that there are fewer avenues of opportunity to shift real volume with each passing supply base restructure, it must get harder to believe in your ability to bounce back quickly.
Growers meanwhile, must be looking at the changing customer landscape in the UK with a mixture of bemusement and trepidation. Their immediate customers were good enough to supply a supermarket last week, but not this week. Now that is a worry.
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