‘Retailers turning to cheaper fruits and vegetables’

A growers association has claimed recently that retailers have started looking to rationalise fresh fruit and vegetable lines and focusing more on less expensive produce.

Reports quoted Lee Stiles, secretary of the Lea Valley Growers Association, which represents more than 500 growers across England, to claim that retailers are readjusting their fresh produce offering to drive down costs.

With labour “not something growers have a lot of at the moment”, retailers were considering cutting SKUs for anything that might require additional manpower and was more expensive to produce, Stiles said.

“They are cutting the amount of tomato lines they buy, and they are cutting the amount of processed fresh produce they buy, like cut and packaged fresh [lines],” he pointed out.

“Anything that needs additional labour in weighing or packaging or that type of thing, they are cutting. So, they are cutting down on choice.” Processed foods like cut cucumbers were also likely destined for the chop with only whole cucumbers expected to be stocked, he suggested.

Stiles also warned that growers would restrict what they grew which in turn is expected to lead to a rise in imported produce. 

“If they do decide to increase their lines at any time, then a lot of the processing will probably be done abroad where they don’t have the same labour issues as we do,” said Stiles. “So, I would imagine that British growers will stick to a much-reduced offering.”

Processed foods such as cut carrots or broccoli in packaging may only be sold loose and whole to avoid extra labour costs, the report said.