Nov 2006
Grasp the pesticides nettle before it
stings you
Mike Knowles
Professor David Hughes upstaged no less a figure than Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Eurofruit’s Southern Hemisphere Congress 2006 in Cape Town in October (see our review on p26-29), capturing the imagination of assembled delegates with a refreshing mixture of insight and humour that was not only engaging but also extremely useful to the more than 450 producers, suppliers, marketers, distributors and retailers in the audience.
David also uttered one of the most memorable things I’ve heard at an industry conference in recent years. Referring to the various NGOs currently pushing for the eradication of pesticides in the fruit and vegetable business, and to the presentation made earlier that day on corporate social responsibility by Gijs Kuneman of Dutch environmental body Stichting en Milieu, he paraphrased former US president Lyndon B Johnson’s old maxim: “It’s probably better to have these guys inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
The trouble is, people in this industry don’t take too kindly to those causing a mess from outside the fresh produce pavilion, which is exactly what Greenpeace did last year with its ‘Stoppt Gift im Essen’ (‘Stop Poisons in Food' ) campaign in Germany. But as Gijs Kuneman pointed out, at this very moment EU regulations are being altered to further tighten the maximum residue levels (MRLs) permitted on fresh fruits and vegetables, so there is a growing need for suppliers to grasp the pesticides nettle before it stings them.
Of course, many companies are already doing a great deal to eliminate the risks of pesticides and, as our report from the EurepGAP annual conference in Prague on p76-77 suggests, more pressure is being brought to bear on certification bodies to harmonise the requirements relating to MRLs and other food safety standards.
As the range and origin of products entering the European fresh produce market continues to expand, it is imperative that the standards required of the suppliers involved are as unambiguous as they can possibly be. Meanwhile, corporate social responsibility is informing consumer choice more and more, and as a result it is becoming more of a pressing concern for big business. Long may this continue.
Professor David Hughes upstaged no less a figure than Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Eurofruit’s Southern Hemisphere Congress 2006 in Cape Town in October (see our review on p26-29), capturing the imagination of assembled delegates with a refreshing mixture of insight and humour that was not only engaging but also extremely useful to the more than 450 producers, suppliers, marketers, distributors and retailers in the audience.
David also uttered one of the most memorable things I’ve heard at an industry conference in recent years. Referring to the various NGOs currently pushing for the eradication of pesticides in the fruit and vegetable business, and to the presentation made earlier that day on corporate social responsibility by Gijs Kuneman of Dutch environmental body Stichting en Milieu, he paraphrased former US president Lyndon B Johnson’s old maxim: “It’s probably better to have these guys inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
The trouble is, people in this industry don’t take too kindly to those causing a mess from outside the fresh produce pavilion, which is exactly what Greenpeace did last year with its ‘Stoppt Gift im Essen’ (‘Stop Poisons in Food' ) campaign in Germany. But as Gijs Kuneman pointed out, at this very moment EU regulations are being altered to further tighten the maximum residue levels (MRLs) permitted on fresh fruits and vegetables, so there is a growing need for suppliers to grasp the pesticides nettle before it stings them.
Of course, many companies are already doing a great deal to eliminate the risks of pesticides and, as our report from the EurepGAP annual conference in Prague on p76-77 suggests, more pressure is being brought to bear on certification bodies to harmonise the requirements relating to MRLs and other food safety standards.
As the range and origin of products entering the European fresh produce market continues to expand, it is imperative that the standards required of the suppliers involved are as unambiguous as they can possibly be. Meanwhile, corporate social responsibility is informing consumer choice more and more, and as a result it is becoming more of a pressing concern for big business. Long may this continue.
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US plays it fast and loose
Chris White
You better believe it: food safety is right back on the agenda in an even bigger way than before. It seems that we have a few California-based producers of spinach to thank for food safety’s simultaneous reappearance in red ink at the top of consumers’ shopping lists and the fresh fruit and vegetable trade’s ‘to do’ list.
In recent weeks, e-coli contamination of bags of fresh spinach have cost the lives of three Americans and rendered very seriously ill more than 200 of their fellow citizens. This would be bad news anywhere in the world, but it’s especially bad for a society which has updated its constitutional principles to include life, liberty and the pursuit of the next meal.
No surprise therefore that spinach sales in the US should have fallen through the floor, with bagged salad sales also hit hard, down by some 30 per cent, say news reports. Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as goons from the FBI have been drafted in to hunt down the source of the contamination which, even if the full results of their investigations have yet to be concluded, is widely thought to sit in a pile of cattle manure in a field in central California.
America’s ongoing struggle with the safety of its fresh spinach comes at a time of great growth for its bagged salads sector. The industry in the US is the world’s largest, worth more than US$4.5bn in annual sales and growing by some 10 per cent per annum. Salads are now the third-fastest growing segment in US supermarkets, with sales climbing by some US$200m every year. A total of eight out of 10 US households now regularly buy packaged salads.
Two brands dominate the bagged salads business in the US, accounting for nearly three-quarters of sales: Fresh Express, which was acquired last year by Chiquita Brands, launched the industry in 1989 and is now market leader with some 41 per cent; Dole is its nearest rival with a 31 per cent share of the market .
When it comes to the safety of produce marketed in the US it seems that things are different. Although processing plants in the US are checked by the FDA and the large companies have developed their own protocols, for many growers it seems that food safety is actually fairly low on the list of priorities they assign for themselves.
How different things are in Europe, where the leading supermarkets have spent much of the past decade spearheading a campaign for food safety from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. In the UK alone, the Salmonella and BSE crises have certainly focused minds. In the light of recent events in the US, their championing of good agricultural practice through standards such as EurepGAP should now be seen as a godsend for suppliers.
Not only does it mean that a food scare of this kind in some of Europe’s leading markets is rather less likely, but it also means that the consequences of any outbreak are bound to be rather easier to manage.
Back in the US, the fresh produce business is now searching for answers to the questions raised by the e-coli crisis. At both United and PMA not to mention among the many opinion-formers in the business and trade media, the search is on for a way out of this current food crisis. The lessons are being learned.
The US could do worse than look across the Atlantic for a solution. They ought to invite their own food retail industry jointly to develop a common set of robust and enforceable food safety standards that will prevent this kind of thing happening again. It’s just too much to expect the cavalry to turn up and save them at the last minute.
You better believe it: food safety is right back on the agenda in an even bigger way than before. It seems that we have a few California-based producers of spinach to thank for food safety’s simultaneous reappearance in red ink at the top of consumers’ shopping lists and the fresh fruit and vegetable trade’s ‘to do’ list.
In recent weeks, e-coli contamination of bags of fresh spinach have cost the lives of three Americans and rendered very seriously ill more than 200 of their fellow citizens. This would be bad news anywhere in the world, but it’s especially bad for a society which has updated its constitutional principles to include life, liberty and the pursuit of the next meal.
No surprise therefore that spinach sales in the US should have fallen through the floor, with bagged salad sales also hit hard, down by some 30 per cent, say news reports. Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as goons from the FBI have been drafted in to hunt down the source of the contamination which, even if the full results of their investigations have yet to be concluded, is widely thought to sit in a pile of cattle manure in a field in central California.
America’s ongoing struggle with the safety of its fresh spinach comes at a time of great growth for its bagged salads sector. The industry in the US is the world’s largest, worth more than US$4.5bn in annual sales and growing by some 10 per cent per annum. Salads are now the third-fastest growing segment in US supermarkets, with sales climbing by some US$200m every year. A total of eight out of 10 US households now regularly buy packaged salads.
Two brands dominate the bagged salads business in the US, accounting for nearly three-quarters of sales: Fresh Express, which was acquired last year by Chiquita Brands, launched the industry in 1989 and is now market leader with some 41 per cent; Dole is its nearest rival with a 31 per cent share of the market .
When it comes to the safety of produce marketed in the US it seems that things are different. Although processing plants in the US are checked by the FDA and the large companies have developed their own protocols, for many growers it seems that food safety is actually fairly low on the list of priorities they assign for themselves.
How different things are in Europe, where the leading supermarkets have spent much of the past decade spearheading a campaign for food safety from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. In the UK alone, the Salmonella and BSE crises have certainly focused minds. In the light of recent events in the US, their championing of good agricultural practice through standards such as EurepGAP should now be seen as a godsend for suppliers.
Not only does it mean that a food scare of this kind in some of Europe’s leading markets is rather less likely, but it also means that the consequences of any outbreak are bound to be rather easier to manage.
Back in the US, the fresh produce business is now searching for answers to the questions raised by the e-coli crisis. At both United and PMA not to mention among the many opinion-formers in the business and trade media, the search is on for a way out of this current food crisis. The lessons are being learned.
The US could do worse than look across the Atlantic for a solution. They ought to invite their own food retail industry jointly to develop a common set of robust and enforceable food safety standards that will prevent this kind of thing happening again. It’s just too much to expect the cavalry to turn up and save them at the last minute.
Basket Case: Australia is proudly
self-sufficient, but at what price?
07 November 2006 16:21 | Asia
Pacific | Permalink
Laura Gould
Food mile adversaries would be well advised to move to Australia, where their consciences could be salved by the fact that very little of the fresh produce on sale is imported. Without a single exception, all of the products in the survey above were home-grown; and the retailers seem proud of Australia’s horticultural tradition.
However, eco-friendly advantages aside, it does not always pay to be quite so self-sufficient when it comes to the tricky business of fruit and vegetable production. The devastating Cyclone Larry, which swept through the Australian state of Queensland in March of this year, has taken its toll on the banana industry; bruised and battered fruit, on sale at inflated prices, are indicative of the damage this natural phenomenon has caused to the produce industry Down Under.
The Philippines Agriculture Secretary took advantage of the climatic disaster by refreshing his appeal to the WTO for Australia to allow banana imports from his country, ironically creating a few ‘food miles’ of his own by catching a long-haul flight to Geneva in order to state his case.
But the Australians have made it emphatically clear that they do not see hastily introduced import measures as the answer to their cyclone-induced banana shortage.
Either way, it just goes to show that, no matter what fresh produce companies do to protect themselves against the elements and work to the highest quality standards they possibly can, they are always, ultimately, at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Food mile adversaries would be well advised to move to Australia, where their consciences could be salved by the fact that very little of the fresh produce on sale is imported. Without a single exception, all of the products in the survey above were home-grown; and the retailers seem proud of Australia’s horticultural tradition.
However, eco-friendly advantages aside, it does not always pay to be quite so self-sufficient when it comes to the tricky business of fruit and vegetable production. The devastating Cyclone Larry, which swept through the Australian state of Queensland in March of this year, has taken its toll on the banana industry; bruised and battered fruit, on sale at inflated prices, are indicative of the damage this natural phenomenon has caused to the produce industry Down Under.
The Philippines Agriculture Secretary took advantage of the climatic disaster by refreshing his appeal to the WTO for Australia to allow banana imports from his country, ironically creating a few ‘food miles’ of his own by catching a long-haul flight to Geneva in order to state his case.
But the Australians have made it emphatically clear that they do not see hastily introduced import measures as the answer to their cyclone-induced banana shortage.
Either way, it just goes to show that, no matter what fresh produce companies do to protect themselves against the elements and work to the highest quality standards they possibly can, they are always, ultimately, at the mercy of Mother Nature.