Positivity was the overriding emotion at the WUWM conference last week, with the position of markets as an essential link between producer and consumer, the role of logistics and distribution, and work towards food-safety certifications taking centre stage.
The three-day event featured technical visits to wholesale and retail markets around Turin, including the CAAT (Turin Food Centre), and the Piazza Bengasi and Porta Palazzo retail markets, to illustrate the four conference sessions.
“WUWM opens up the market downstream at the retail end and upstream we have to strengthen our links with producers,” says Ottavio Guala at CAAT. “Markets have an irreplaceable role in linking the world of producers and the world of consumers. Wholesalers no longer sell commodities only. We sell services and logistics and we are equipped to give customers some practical responses to their needs.”
Producers, importers and traders are “agents” to the market, says Roció Lopez de Diago at top-ranking Spanish wholesale market Mercamadrid, who “must provide food in an orderly and safe way”, bearing in mind that “quality is as important as quantity”.
Market prices are set by supply and demand and, by the nature of the trade, are kept at a competitive level, but Claudio Sassi at market analyst Informercati, which looks at price trends to measure the gap between wholesale prices and retail mark-ups, proposes there should be more transparency in the trade. “The group gathers data to find out how the price is formed and set to make the system more transparent,” he says. “We are able to compare prices every week and give the prevalent price. The work we do and the information we give is important, as we can identify the bestselling price for each product.
“We try to help market systems become more competitive so that the best companies will supply the best product at the right prices.
“We hope what we are doing will contribute to the development of markets.”
The information is a useful tool for local authorities, according to Sassi, who believes they should step in and take action to prevent monopoly situations.
But the idea fuelled debate from the floor. “We don’t have a market where increasing or decreasing prices affects retails,” says Wolf Rohde at Hamburg Market. “What you are doing will provide information, but it cannot influence markets,” he insists.
Talk of logistics and transport also formed a basis for lively discussion, with distribution seen as an all-important avenue for wholesale markets.
Existing transport methods could be used to improve the distribution chain, according to Manuel Estrada at Mercasa, who believes a rail revival could be the way forward. “There is a problem with congestion on roads and, if this continues, we will have a collapse of the whole system and also a big environmental cost,” he says. “A number of wholesale markets in Spain have railways coming to them but, for a long time, this form of transport was not used and product was delivered by truck. But the demand for rail transport is increasing.”
The Spanish regional governments have spent the last five years putting together and acting on a transport plan that will put a lot of emphasis on rail, says Estrada, and high-speed lines are being built across Spain.
But while the concept of switching to rail was met with optimism, a number of reservations - including the quality and regularity of the service and doubts about the ability to make rail part of the cool chain - were voiced from the floor. “We are just at the beginning,” admits Estrada, but he believes these obstacles can be overcome.
HQL (Hodorff Quality Logistics) at Hamburg Market was held up as a model for the next generation of logistics platforms. The 7,600-square metre centre, with a total capacity of 180,000 tonnes and 27 temperature zones on one site, opened on December 15, 2006, after two years of planning and six months of construction.
“Logistics services must be geared to the demands of the market,” says HQL chairman Heinrich Hodorff. “The more delicate the product is, the more care is needed, and product must be forwarded as quickly as possible.”
Hodorff claims the technology used at HQL is unique. “When the produce arrives it is appraised by a throughput lab, which takes a sample from each truckload. While tests are going on, produce can be stored or forwarded, but it will not go on sale until it has received the all-clear, and the cost of recalls is covered by an insurance policy,” he says. “It only takes 12 hours to get results - whereas normally it can take up to a week - and we are working to make the time lag shorter.”
HQL is one of the only logistics platforms to be compliant with six food-safety standards. “I want consumers to be certain that what they are biting into is wholesome,” Hodorff says.
His sentiments were echoed across the board and an overriding emphasis was put on maintaining standards at each level of the supply chain. “The position of wholesalers is difficult - they receive goods without a contract and standards can be low,” says Professor Roberto della Casa at Bologna Polo di Forlí University. “We need to have a real standard on the market to put wholesalers and retailers on the same level.”
Torsten Berens at Hamburg Market, which received an ISO 9001 certification in June 1999 and renewals in June 2002 and May 2005, and is working towards HACCP certification, and Gregorz Hempowicz at Poznan Market, which gained HACCP certification in April 2004, shared their experiences of the process and the challenges they faced.
“An increasing pressure to get certifications is being felt at all levels on the wholesale market chain,” says Berens. “But if you fail to win the hearts and minds of the people who work in the market, implementation will be very hard.”
Berens concludes that the length of time it takes to gain certification is related to what the market management understands as quality, but that it was better to be thorough than quick. Market authorities must convince tenants that the process of certification, which takes time and money, is a positive step, he added, but they must not underestimate resistance.
The most important thing is to get the market operators on side, Hempowicz agrees, and this involves training market operators on food health and safety, as well as keeping them informed about costs to them - one of the primary concerns for traders - and keeping them up to date on progress. “In Poland we have a saying - ‘the devil is not as ugly as it is painted and shown in the pictures’ - and that relates to certification,” he adds.
Talk of retail markets played an integral role in the event and, with WUWM planning to host its first retail-based conference in October, discussion on this area - particularly of interest to market operators that deal with both wholesale and retail - attracted attention.
The restoration of retail markets was shown as a key to regeneration in towns and cities across the world, with Borough Market, London, and a revamped site in Bordeaux held up as shining models of how refurbishing run-down sites can turn around the fortunes of the surrounding area.
George Nicholson at Borough Market showed before-and-after shots that compared the state of the market in 1997 with its made-over look today.
“Borough Market is slap bang in the middle of London, but there is not enough population in this area alone to sustain it,” he says. “In 1997, the whole area was in a bit of a mess. The UK was coming out of the bottom of a very deep property recession, and there was very little activity on the market.”
The market hosted around 100 traders in its heyday, but, at its lowest point in the late 90s, this number dropped to around 20. “What we had was, effectively, an empty and derelict two-hectare site,” says Nicholson. “Here was a market losing money, going bust, but, with some new EU regulations coming into place, the trustees started to think about what the market could be.”
This coincided with a government project to support regeneration and the trustees bid for €3 million (£2m) funding and ran an architectural competition for the market redesign, which was won by the team that refurbished Leeds city market.
Fast forward a decade and Borough Market - virtually unrecognisable from its 1997 form - plays on the traditional reputation of the area as “London’s Larder”, where top-quality British produce sits alongside traditional continental foods, with both a casual market and permanent retail stands.
The only shadow on the horizon is the fact that a railway line is set to be built through the site, Nicholson says, but this was factored into the refurbishments.
Turnover has reached some £2m a year, a complete turnaround from annual losses of around £70,000 some 10 years ago, says Nicholson. “Borough Market has come a long way in the last 10 years,” he adds, “Other businesses are coming in and feeding off the back of the market, and the whole area has been regenerated.”
Retail markets provide a public service by supporting small and medium-sized business, which in turn, sees local areas thrive, says Roberto Alonso, retail market chief at Mercasa. “The philosophy of our organisation is to promote the development of markets to promote and develop business,” he says. “But what is really lacking is a concept that can really break habits for buying perishable goods. At the moment there is no emotional factor for purchasing.”
The customer experience of the market is key, says Nicholson, so that a visit becomes an event in itself rather than just a means to an end. “The way Borough Market feels, with its variety of wholesale and shops and high-quality produce, is unique,” he says. “Markets are one step ahead of the competition in this game.”
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