What do “Egan’s” and “Farrell’s” have in common?
They are all brand names used on supermarket packed own label fruit and veg. They give you the impression that they are family farms, BUT THEY ARE NOT. They are marketing mechanisms, to make us feel warm and happy that we are supporting these assumed lovely family farms.
We are working hard on our Real farm to get the autumn harvest out and the conditions are favourable; this is the same in the remaining Irish vegetable farms up and down the country the likes of Beechlawn Organic farm, or McCormacks Family farm, or Philip Dreaper’s farm in Offaly where we get our Irish carrots, or Richard Galvin in Clashganny organic farm who supplies our organic Irish apples, and many, many more.
These family names used in some supermarkets give the impression there is a real farm with a family name behind the carrots, or tomatoes on their shelf. I recently went to check this out in a large Retailer.
In their fruit and veg section I was convinced that “Farrell’s” which was labelled on much of their Irish produce was a family farm and this family were producing a wealth of produce. At least at first glance that was my impression. I’m in the veg growing business I am a grower and understand a little of how these things work and I was taken in by the misleading advertising.
As I looked a little closer it seemed that my original assumption was not at all correct. “Farrell’s” is not a real farm; it is a marketing tool created by the supermarket to give the consumer that warm homely glow of things being done right.
Does it matter?
Well, I think it does, firstly, this is misleading, you are led to believe the produce is coming from “Farrell’s”, and it is not.
The second interesting point that is worth considering is that this brand allows supermarkets or more frequently large pack houses and distribution centres, to take in produce from multiple farms and blend it into packs, so the carrots may be coming from multiple suppliers and you or I will never know. This practice is now frequently called “blending”.
This is very helpful for large retailers as it gives it them the balance of power when it comes to price negotiation, and the ultimate flexibility to choose whose carrots or apples to put into their bag.
When the grower is hidden, he has less power to negotiate a fair price and as with all own branded products on supermarket shelves they are cheaper. It is this pricing structure that has done the damage to growers all over Ireland over the last twenty years.
As always with your support our real Farm continues to grow and our support for other REAL growers can be fair and transparent.
Thank you.
Kenneth
PS Thank you to everybody who donated to our Gaza appeal during the week, I am waiting on final confirmation but the total donated is looking like it was €2380, so thank you so much to everybody, we will be topping this up with the 50% of €1190 making the total donation we will make to the UNICEF Gaza appeal €3570. We will confirm this early next week and be making the donation straight away.