A day for retail
Thursday was a day for retail issues at the AsiaFruit Congress/AsiaFruit Logistica conference here in Bangkok. Jonathan Sutton of Tesco operations in Thailand and Malaysia opened the day with a talk about the opportunity for direct supply relationships with Tesco.
Sutton did a nice job in describing the history of Tesco, its mission and where it is headed in the near future - not just in Asia, but in a global context.
Chris White of EuroFruit magazine expertly moderated the session and at one point challenged Sutton about his contention that "size doesn't matter" in regards to Tesco's supplier relationships.
Other retailers joined Sutton for a roundtable that was extremely interesting and quite unusual. How many times do you see four or five competing retailers on the same stage together?
Many other questions from the crowd addressed why there are so many certification hoops for growers to jump through, if retailers truly are willing to pay more for food safety. And, by the way, while you are asking growers to do this that and the other, what are you retailers doing to enhance food safety at store level? There were questions about how direct supply relationships might be threatened by market conditions, the role of innovation, attitudes about irradiation and more. Good stuff.
The slide show in the post below is from the Central Food Market in Bangkok. The store is on the seventh floor of a sprawling new mall and was designed by Noel Shield, an expatriate Australian who has been contracted by Central Food Retail Group to develop its fresh supply sourcing and increase opportunities in its retail operations.
Sutton did a nice job in describing the history of Tesco, its mission and where it is headed in the near future - not just in Asia, but in a global context.
Chris White of EuroFruit magazine expertly moderated the session and at one point challenged Sutton about his contention that "size doesn't matter" in regards to Tesco's supplier relationships.
Other retailers joined Sutton for a roundtable that was extremely interesting and quite unusual. How many times do you see four or five competing retailers on the same stage together?
Many other questions from the crowd addressed why there are so many certification hoops for growers to jump through, if retailers truly are willing to pay more for food safety. And, by the way, while you are asking growers to do this that and the other, what are you retailers doing to enhance food safety at store level? There were questions about how direct supply relationships might be threatened by market conditions, the role of innovation, attitudes about irradiation and more. Good stuff.
The slide show in the post below is from the Central Food Market in Bangkok. The store is on the seventh floor of a sprawling new mall and was designed by Noel Shield, an expatriate Australian who has been contracted by Central Food Retail Group to develop its fresh supply sourcing and increase opportunities in its retail operations.
Labels: 5 a Day, FDA, irradiation
posted by Tom Karst @ 6:10 AM
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