An emotional rollercoaster of a week

by Kenneth Keavey

Supermarkets have a stranglehold on our food system, whatever way you look at it they set the rules, they control 93% of a €22 billion pie, that is some power when you think about it. The argument goes that supermarkets are only giving us as consumers what we want, but how would we know what we want?

Please watch my Instagram video this week. http://instagram.com/greenearthorganics1

There is immense psychology around getting people to buy high margin low value products (think ultra processed food). I was at panel discussion during the week chaired by Aoibheann O’Brien who runs Food Cloud, and the title was the “myth of choice in supermarkets” a very interesting discussion.

We have been conditioned for instance to expect vegetables and fruit to come in a certain shape and size and look a certain way, if we only ever shop in supermarkets how would we know that fresh produce comes in all sizes, and in fact comes out of the ground with soil on it, and that this is, ok? In fact, it is more than ok, it is amazing and wonderful.

The shiny plastic packs keep us in our box so to speak; they convey a very comforting all is well and this is the way things should be feel. But you know what it is not “all is well” and don’t even get me started on all the plastic rubbish generated by these single use plastics. At the excellent Climate Carnival discussion there was a discussion on plastic, and the big elephant in the room, is what truly happens to the contents of our blue recycle bin?

We pack in paper and compostable bags, and the reality is supermarkets will not pack their veg in compostable bags because they are expensive.

I spoke to a man who knows the food system and knows the buying behaviour of supermarkets, and his take was ultimately fresh food is too cheap, and supermarkets are responsible of bringing us to this point, end of story. I spoke to Philip Dreaper who is an amazing carrot grower, and he reminded me that we as consumers paid more for a kg of carrots 20 years ago that we do today. He also reminded me that growing is getting more challenging as a result of climate change.

We had an amazing day of celebrations last weekend at our 20 year anniversary Sustainable Festival.  It was emotional and uplifting and enlightening and I cannot begin to convey my thanks to all of you who came, to all the suppliers and vendors, and to all our amazing team that made it all work.

It was then with all of this as a backdrop that we faced into our usual Monday morning with orders not at all where they needed to be for mid-September, each week we had been waiting for the routines to set in and things to improve for our deliveries, and we were left with a massive glut of cherry tomatoes, for us we counted nearly 400kg which is a true mountain of tomatoes. It was with a bittersweet taste in my mouth that I had to go to the tunnel and ask again as I did in the summer if you could support us this week. I would much prefer not to have to do this.

We I am sure could improve so many things, and so many things we need to address such as cost. We know there is a cost-of-living crisis we know our produce is expensive relative to supermarkets. But we simply cannot compete on some things with them, but we would hope that how we conduct ourselves as a farm and business and community, and the value that is in the fresh organic food would speak for itself.

I am sure I am missing something, so please if you know of ways we could make it easier and better for you to order from us and help us to ensure we keep more of you our customer supporting us, please send us an e-mail (info@greenearthorganics.ie) or leave us a comment. We will take it all on board.

Thank you so much for the last 20 years, and here is to the next 20 years.

Kenneth

PS We have reduced prices on several key items to help address some of the cost issues, check out our website. Also, as an added celebration of the start of Irish apple season, we are giving away a FREE portion of IRISH organic apples from Richard Galvin in Waterford when you spend over €80, just enter the code FREEAPPLES

Only 60 field vegetable growers left in Ireland…

by Kenneth Keavey

In 1998 there were over 400 primary field scale growers in Ireland, now there are less than 60.  I imagine if you went back a further 30 years, this number would double again.

There was a time when a potato or vegetable grower could deal directly with local supermarkets, this allowed local produce to be sold at local supermarkets. But since the advent of central distribution, the flow of produce has been restricted to only three or four large distributors that supply the supermarkets, putting a swift end to local supply chains.

Growers had little choice, either consolidate, increase production and compete or go out of business. But as the supermarket model of procurement was centralised their power increased and there was little power left in the hands of the farmer.

Farmers that scaled up to meet the demand, usually with very significant investment (you need tractors, sheds, washing facilities to grow vegetables in scale), were left at the mercy of unscrupulous supermarket buyers. When farmers were then faced with propositions from supermarkets to drop their prices or to fund promotions to reduce the price of their produce on supermarket shelves they had little choice but to do so.

On a smaller scale but not dissimilar to the bigger growers above, I remember distinctly our experience of dealing with supermarkets. We had spent several years building up business with certain supermarkets and we were selling well in several stores. Customers had gotten used to our shelf in the supermarket, but then bit by bit, own branded supermarket imported produce started to appear next to our produce.

One Monday morning as we called to get our usual order, an order we depended on, we were to discover that the rules of the game had changed. A new fresh food buyer was put in place, and he demanded that we reduce our prices, stock the shelves ourselves, and be responsible for any waste they incurred due to lack of sales of produce they had bought from us.

We never supplied that shop again or for that matter any of the other 12 supermarket stores we used to supply.

The supermarkets continue to put pressure on growers to fund their loss leaders’ campaigns, they expect farmers to shoulder part or all the burden of this cost.

But these cheap prices lead to the perception in the eyes of the consumer that freshly grow produce is of little value. Ironically this can inadvertently lead to food waste, nearly one third of all food produced is thrown in the bin, which in the end will cost us more. If we were to pay a little more for our food, maybe we wouldn’t waste so much and ironically actually be better off.

So, as it stands the supermarkets, the kings and gatekeeps of this seemingly inexhaustible and abundant supply of produce are more to blame for the decline of the Irish vegetable industry than anything else. The bottom line is always the bottom line, and if the farmers had a model that was financially viable, they would still be here, I guess we can safely say they did not.

as always thank you for your support.

Kenneth