| 17 reader comments [Add comment] |
| Not yet ! - Golden Delicious 8 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
The question of cheap food is not the real question. Can we curb the greed of the retailers so they give a proper return to the growers. No we can't. It's quite simple. When market prices rise due to lack of product, the supermarkets force the growers to sell at a loss or lose futur business, if that fails they reduce shelf space and even accept to be short of fruit mid afternoon rather than pay more for the fruit. The one thing we could do is ban supermarkets from selling under cost price, this would stop stupid price wars like on Bananas for example.
Yes this will increase the price of somme food, but people must pay the real price,if not production will fail and the world won't be able to feed it's 7 billion population. |
|
| Production - Brian McGillivray 8 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
It will soon be time to wake up and smell the coffee,if you can still get it.
China has 20 % of the worlds population and 7 % of the worlds arable land.
Brazil has 14 % of the worlds freshwater resources the most of any country.Adecoagro a farmland fund in which George Soros has a stake in owns 650,000 hectares of land in Argentina,Brazil and Uruguay.
Sovereign funds are either leasing or buying up chunks of land for food security.
The Chinese Sovereign fund has invested in Noble one of the large commodity players based in Hong Kong who have now opened up their UK office.The impacts on all of this are staggering as you are looking at positions being taken for a combination of natural resources and food security.
|
|
| re: Production - Anonymous 8 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| So people listen to Brian, sell your Tesco shares and buy land ! |
|
|
| Cheap food - Foodie 9 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| The era of cheap food is just beginning. Look at all the pound shops and people like Home Bargains that are setting up on our high streets. Go cheap food! |
|
| re: Cheap food - Anonymous 9 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
Sorry not cheap foods but normal prices to customer, the last 10 years the supermarkets have been over charging customers.
Now it is time to pay back the greedy Supermarkets and go back to local shops with good food and fresh Fruit and Veg.
|
|
| re: re: Cheap food - qqq@gmail.com 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| But wouldn't it be more cost effective to distribute food from large central outlets, rather than a miriad of small ones dotted around the place? And then there are all the vans and lorries to think of too. Should we collectivise food distribution to save the planet? |
|
| Cheap food - Golden Delicious 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
Today, if you buy 1kg of apples in a supermarket, only 35% of the cost gets back to the packhouse.. which means after packhouse charges, storage, packaging and of course expensive quality departments... LESS THAN 12% OF THE COST GETS BACK TO THE GROWER !!! So the supermarket who is only keeping these apples for 48h / 72h are making close to 0.60€ / kilo net profit from the apples when the grower who works 12 months of the year....looks after the apples for 6 months in the orchards during the growing period and often 4 to 6 months more in CA cold store after picking is only getting back 0.20€ / kilo ! FACT !
What I can't see is how this is going to change.. can you ? |
|
| re: Cheap food - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| 0.20 Euro is the price for 60/65 at the moment but CA controlled Granny Smith/Royal Gala size 70/75 would be paid 0.40 Euro in Bins ! |
|
| re: re: Cheap food - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| Yes you are right, graded and in bins..! this is not the price that goes back to the grower, you have to take off all the costs of the packhouse, cold storage, grading and the sales team as well. The net price back to the grower would only be 0.20cts. And a kilo of apples costs 0.28 cts to grow ! |
|
| re: re: Cheap food - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| Once again we have someone who doesn't know the real costs of producing apples. Granny and Gala at 0.40cts in bins ok, but what will the grower pocket ? |
|
| re: re: re: Cheap food - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| I agree with above, the grower would only get half of the 0.40cts offered ! The point being, with an extra 0.10cts per kilo or an extra 1.30euros per box everybody could earn a living. But the greedy supermarkets want it all for themselves !! |
|
| re: re: re: Cheap food - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
If you serve your apples to Supermarkets to have 0.20 Euros the kilo then you should change your customers and 0.28 Euro to grow apples sorry more like 0.30 Euros.
The main problem today is that you have to many idiots working as Cat Manager who don’t understand that it costs money to have pack houses up to supermarkets standards and to have Globalgap, Tesco choice etc…..
|
|
| re: re: re: re: Cheap food - Golden Delicious 11 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| Change your client my A** ! At the moment 98% of apples being sold by growers in Europe are atless than 0.28cts / kilo net for the grower ! (the 0.02% is Pink Lady !). The cold fact is that supermarkets have increased the price of appels they are selling in store by 15% against last year but are paying the shippers / growers 18% less. Being a cat manager today is not as easy as you think, and not one is in a very healthy situation. |
|
| Cheap food - Anon2 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| Growers don't mind if consumers think their products are "cheap" as long as the price paid reflects the work and investment needed to have a sustainable business. Cheap or expensive is going to be a decision made by the journalists who monitor food prices. When they are bored and there is nothing else to report then we start getting this appearing in the media. |
|
| Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
Fodd is not cheap.
it is just sold for less than it's worth. someone in the chain is constantly susidising the price to allow retailers to look good |
|
| re: - Anonymous 10 Feb 10 [Reply to this comment] |
| I agree!! Supermarkets look back at last year and want to follow the calndar for promotions, fact is that no 2 seasons are the same, so the only way this works if the category managers are weak and say YES! |
|
|
