Tesco CEO - Comments on food waste!

Wolds Beef

Member
@JP1 or @Chris F There is an article about food waste in the Daily Wail online and I am sure our farmers and Hort boys would love to comment on how hypocritical this guy is.
Please put a link!
WB
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks
More blame passing, which is why Tesco et al, love farm assurance as it just shoves any responsibility further back down the chain. Tesco might have bigger problems this weekend if our local one is anything to go on ( a high proportion of the shelves empty)
 

Wolds Beef

Member
Several years ago, I knew one of the large veg growers near Boston. Saw him at a charity do and I was talking veg waste because I collected a couple of pallet boxes a week from the waste end of his packhouse for our ped. suffolks. He said that we would not be able to pick up lovely whole cabbage, as we used to, because the supermarkets had declared that everything coming away from that and other packhouses had to go through a blade so that it could not be sold at farmers markets ect.
WB
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Makes my blood boil. We used to grade out 25% on the farm to send off what we thought was a nice sample of spuds / veg ( organic ). We'd get the returns back from the packhouse to find another 30-40% had been graded out. Add the 2 together.....
Then there's the promotions, the taking things offline for " political reasons ", and the stuff that got ploughed in for not meeting their exacting standards, and voila. 50% of everything we planted never reached the shelves. I do hope Tesco have changed their attitude in the 12 years since we gave up. but I doubt it.
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
What a complete c-unit

having supplied a packer for this pricks company with carrots, they have no feckin idea. All they want is 100% perfection and don’t want to pay for it


broken tip? Complaint

bit of green shaw? complaint,

imperfect skin finish? Complaint.

Cut off a white tip, leaving the good 99% in the bag? Complaint

Wont take anything under 30mm

mass panic on the Friday morn prior to a bank holiday, big rush, extra loads, then come the Tuesday you’ll get 2 or 3 days of nothing coz they over ordered.

go the extra mile every time, slowly destroying our soil for what thanks? to get perhaps one good year in 4, and screwed on price the others.

1p/kg in the shop makes feck all difference to the consumer, the equivalent £10/t makes massive difference to a grower, but it’s kept screwed to the floor.

Hauliers too I feel sorry for, booked in to tip at the Tesco depot first thing, kept waiting half the day, we’re hanging back to load them in the evening instead of morning, drivers getting grief for being late, then the same company that fecked up the schedule to begin with is threatening haulier over late delivery of subsequent load. No wonder the shelves are bare, who’d want to deliver for them?

Not in that any more, good riddance, bunch of pricks.
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Playing devil's advocate - the reason that supermarkets want "perfect" veg is because customers want that. Some supermarkets have made a big thing of having wonky/imperfect veg at a lower price & yet a large majority of customers will still only buy the in grade stuff, watch how folk root through the loose veg to get at the best looking bits, watch folk selecting bananas - they want them all the same size & without a blemish. The same goes for cuts of meat - watch how folk paw through the available joints or bits of steak for the lowest fat content & pinkest look, ironically the most tasteless pieces, but at least it looks good. If they can't find the quality they want in Tesco, they'll go down the road to the competition.

Obviously a lot of blame falls at the feet of the supermarkets for how they operated in the past, particularly in the 80s & 90s, but at least Tesco are trying to do something about it & have been doing so for some time now.
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Playing devil's advocate - the reason that supermarkets want "perfect" veg is because customers want that. Some supermarkets have made a big thing of having wonky/imperfect veg at a lower price & yet a large majority of customers will still only buy the in grade stuff, watch how folk root through the loose veg to get at the best looking bits, watch folk selecting bananas - they want them all the same size & without a blemish. The same goes for cuts of meat - watch how folk paw through the available joints or bits of steak for the lowest fat content & pinkest look, ironically the most tasteless pieces, but at least it looks good. If they can't find the quality they want in Tesco, they'll go down the road to the competition.

Obviously a lot of blame falls at the feet of the supermarkets for how they operated in the past, particularly in the 80s & 90s, but at least Tesco are trying to do something about it & have been doing so for some time now.
Then why not publish in the Daily Mail the shocking waste of consumers at the supermarket ?

Veg is one thing but that article’s stats would suggest the acreage needed to cover food waste at the farm gate means other products ; I just don’t see it myself
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Then why not publish in the Daily Mail the shocking waste of consumers at the supermarket ?

Veg is one thing but that article’s stats would suggest the acreage needed to cover food waste at the farm gate means other products ; I just don’t see it myself
The majority of the waste occurs before the food gets to the supermarkets as the they don't waste their money shipping products into stores that isn't going to sell well enough. Besides which, if Tesco put an article out saying "Our customers are idiots for not buying whatever standard of product is placed before them" I suspect that their profits might take a tumble Ratner-esque!

The article is quite clear that it's about food production across the whole world. Admittedly, it's cleverly worded around the waste levels before the farm gate, but at least they're actively tackling the issues rather than sitting around moaning about it...
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
The majority of the waste occurs before the food gets to the supermarkets as the they don't waste their money shipping products into stores that isn't going to sell well enough. Besides which, if Tesco put an article out saying "Our customers are idiots for not buying whatever standard of product is placed before them" I suspect that their profits might take a tumble Ratner-esque!

The article is quite clear that it's about food production across the whole world. Admittedly, it's cleverly worded around the waste levels before the farm gate, but at least they're actively tackling the issues rather than sitting around moaning about it...

this is just a PR exercise as they know they’re on shaky ground.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Playing devil's advocate - the reason that supermarkets want "perfect" veg is because customers want that. Some supermarkets have made a big thing of having wonky/imperfect veg at a lower price & yet a large majority of customers will still only buy the in grade stuff, watch how folk root through the loose veg to get at the best looking bits, watch folk selecting bananas - they want them all the same size & without a blemish. The same goes for cuts of meat - watch how folk paw through the available joints or bits of steak for the lowest fat content & pinkest look, ironically the most tasteless pieces, but at least it looks good. If they can't find the quality they want in Tesco, they'll go down the road to the competition.

Obviously a lot of blame falls at the feet of the supermarkets for how they operated in the past, particularly in the 80s & 90s, but at least Tesco are trying to do something about it & have been doing so for some time now.
The majority of the waste occurs before the food gets to the supermarkets as the they don't waste their money shipping products into stores that isn't going to sell well enough. Besides which, if Tesco put an article out saying "Our customers are idiots for not buying whatever standard of product is placed before them" I suspect that their profits might take a tumble Ratner-esque!

The article is quite clear that it's about food production across the whole world. Admittedly, it's cleverly worded around the waste levels before the farm gate, but at least they're actively tackling the issues rather than sitting around moaning about it...
It's disingenuous to say the customer wants perfect produce. It's the supermarkets themselves who have "trained" the customer to that view. They have created the issue themselves.

They love to use the line "we only sell what the customer wants" but, in reality, they offer a very carefully restricted range of produce quality and then make out that must be what the customer demands.

For them to then decry the waste caused by them refusing "out of spec" produce and to put clauses in their contracts preventing that out of spec food being competetively retailed is a hypocritical abuse of their market power.

Market share has alot to answer for in current food waste.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
I can't remember which one but I recently listened to a podcast in which the presenter mentioned they had asked the BRC representative whether the food retailers absolute priority was to sell healthy food or profit. The immediate answer was that their priority was profit and it was the Government's responsibility to set the legal framework to ensure that the did sold profitably was also healthy. That same motion applies here to resource efficiency. Unless the law makes them accountable for the waste caused by their trading methods then why would they take any notice?
 

lloyd

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Looks like he's only been CEO a few months
so probably trying to make his mark.
Why do farmers supply this supermarket they sound
like an arrogant and pedantic business ?
Thank goodness other supermarkets are thriving
and seem to respect UK farming a liittle more.
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
That potato but is nonsense. McCain and Everest potatoes have been doing that in the midlands since the 70’s!
I imagine all the other potato firms have half a brain too!
Tesco have driven this problem, Terry Leahy just wanted expansion.
It’s blame pushing and nonsense. Most farm waste is eaten by livestock anyway!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,290
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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