Fresh Produce Discussion Blog

Created by The Packer's National Editor Tom Karst

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Wal-Mart toughens delivery deadlines for suppliers - Reuters

Wal-Mart toughens delivery deadlines for suppliers - Reuters

Suppliers prodded to deliver within 4-day period

Stocks

* Those that miss delivery window could face penalty

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is imposing new delivery requirements on its suppliers aimed at making sure merchandise does not arrive in its U.S. distribution centers either too early or too late.

As of Feb. 1, companies delivering goods to Wal-Mart warehouses need to have their merchandise arrive within a four-day window leading up to a "must arrive by date," or a MABD.

Suppliers that are consistently early or late in delivering goods and now miss the window could face a penalty.

"Those suppliers which have an ongoing record of missing this designated 4-day delivery window, they'll have 3 percent of the cost of goods deducted from the invoices for each delivery that doesn't arrive on time," said company spokesman Dan Fogleman.

Fogleman said there was no incentive in place prior to implementing the new rules to encourage suppliers to get their merchandise to its distributions centers on time.

"This helps ensure the steady flow of freight through the system so that the stores are stocked appropriately, but at the same time you're not warehousing a lot of things and handling them multiple times," he said.

MABD are used by other retailers, and Fogleman said Wal-Mart's new policy is in line with late charges imposed by competitors. Fogleman said there is an appeals process if there are extenuating circumstances that hamper a delivery. (

Who wins with supermarket loyalty cards? -BBC

Who wins with supermarket loyalty cards? -BBC


By Victoria Trench
Business reporter, BBC News

Shopper with bags
Shoppers' loyalty cards bring money-off vouchers - what's in it for the store?

Fifteen years ago, Tesco launched the Clubcard - a loyalty scheme that rewarded shoppers with vouchers offering discounts if they shopped regularly at the supermarket.

A year later, Clubcard holders were spending 28% more at Tesco and 16% less at Sainsbury's.

The grocery rival responded with its own Reward card and more recently joined other retailers in the Nectar card scheme.

Although shoppers benefit from discounts on products, the supermarkets also obtain a vast amount of knowledge about their customers' preferences.

So who gets the real reward from loyalty cards?

Popular

About 85% of households in the UK have at least one loyalty card, according to the market researchers, TNS.

Tesco's Clubcard is the giant, with 15 million active members in the UK, who last year received a total of £529m in vouchers.

As well as the supermarkets, scores of other grocers and retail chains have launched similar schemes. They include Boots, WH Smith and some petrol retailers.

A considerable amount of shopping is generally required to get any meaningful discount on products, although the shops can also use the cards to offer special promotions when it suits them.

Their appearance has also all but killed off at least one other type of reward scheme - that offered by credit cards. Only about 30 such cards continue to offer rewards for spending, compared with about 140 five years ago.

Not all retailers are drawn to them. Asda, for example, has made a marketing point of not offering loyalty cards. It claims that the money that would have been spent on such a programme is spent instead on cutting prices.

Buying habits

Retailers are keen to retain their highest paying customers and closely monitor general buying habits through the information gleaned from loyalty cards.

Tesco Clubcard
Tesco has one of the oldest supermarket loyalty cards

One retailer was reported to have spotted a trend for fathers to come into stores on their way home from work on a Friday, in order to buy nappies for their children.

As a result, the store placed six-packs of beer on the adjacent shelves, and found that the sales of beer went up.

The Tesco Clubcard is operated by Dunnhumby, a private company now majority owned by Tesco.

"The evidence shows that customers love the offers they get," Edwina Dunn, chief executive of Dunnhumby, told the BBC.

But she readily admits that the retailer's aim is to get the shopper to visit more often or even just to get them to put an extra item in their basket.

The scheme is not just a UK phenomenon. There are loyalty card scheme for Tesco customers in Ireland, Poland, Malaysia, South Korea and China.

Tesco has also developed an application for iPhone users, which allows the owner to scan their phone instead of carrying a card.

'Power'

Sainsbury's has taken up the battle by pushing the Nectar card, claiming that 10.8 million households in the UK have earned points from their cards in the last 12 weeks.

It differs from Tesco's in that shoppers can use the card with a variety of companies, not just Sainsbury's.

The major links are with BP garages, EDF Energy and the travel website Expedia. Nectar also awards points from purchases made through some online retailers.

Andrew Mann, of Sainsbury's, claims that the data allows them to create the most popular promotions for customers.

But not everybody is a fan of these loyalty schemes.

David Kuo, of personal finance website The Motley Fool, says that the balance of benefit is too far on the side of the retailer. He says that the investment is great for supermarkets, but less so for their customers.

He claims that 80% of supermarkets' profits come from 20% of customers and the focus of loyalty cards is on how those specific customers are behaving.

"It puts the power back in the hands of the supermarkets," he says.

Where Produce is Scarce, Supermarkets Will Grow - NYT

Where Produce is Scarce, Supermarkets Will Grow - NYT

In Randy’s Grocery Corp., the small bodega above the Tremont Avenue subway station in the Bronx, the fresh produce pickings are slim. A dozen shriveled green peppers and a tray of limes and tomatoes sit under a dimly lit glass counter next to a crate of browning bananas.

The situation in nearby grocery stores and delis is little better -– shelves are stacked with potato chips, canned goods and soda bottles, while fruit and vegetable sections are hard to come by.

But the fresh produce situation in the neighborhood is expected to improve soon. The New York City Industrial Development Agency approved millions in tax and real estate benefits Tuesday for the development of two new supermarkets in the Bronx – one near Tremont Avenue and one in Norwood.

The projects are the first to be approved under the city’s Fresh Retail Expansion to Support Health program, known as FRESH, which encourages the establishment of neighborhood full-line grocery stores in low-income and underserved communities.

“Thanks to the FRESH program, we have the opportunity to help ensure that all New Yorkers have the food choices that for too long have been lacking in certain neighborhoods,” said the agency’s chairman, Seth W. Pinsky.

The program, announced by state and city officials last spring, claims to be the first in the nation to offer a combination of zoning and financial incentives to property owners, developers and grocery store operators in multiple neighborhoods.

About 700,000 New Yorkers are currently affected by diabetes, while three million are overweight or obese, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The FRESH program aims to reverse this health trend, which is most prevalent in areas underserved by supermarkets.

On Tuesday, the development agency, part of the city Economic Development Corporation, approved approximately $3 million in real estate and tax benefits for a Foodtown supermarket to be rebuilt and expanded on East 204th Street in Norwood, where a Foodtown burned down in December.

Western Beef will receive $5.6 million to replace and expand their current store on Park Avenue near the Tremont subway station. To qualify for FRESH benefits, both stores must provide a broad selection of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products.

People in the neighborhood were, not surprisingly, happy to hear Tuesday’s news. “We need more fresh produce in this area,” said Yvonne Melendez, a mother of three who lives near Tremont Avenue. “It’s very difficult to eat healthily in the Bronx.”

In Norwood, at the end of the D train, “It’s difficult even to find simple things like fresh spinach or basil – and these are not out-of-this-world items,” said Yensi Madlonado, an environmental educator who lives in the neighborhood.

Construction on the 35,000-square-foot Western Beef is scheduled to start in the spring, while work on the 11,000-square-foot Foodtown is expected to start in the summer.

Low-income areas in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan have also been highlighted as target areas for the program.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the development agency, City Comptroller John Liu, an ex-oficio member of the board, voted against the supermarket projects and two other city subsidies that came up for final votes. He said that he did not have specific objections to the projects but had concerns about the process used by the Economic Development Corporation to choose candidates for funding.

Mr. Liu said that his staff would meet with officials of the development corporation to gain a better understanding of how the city decides which projects receive grants, loans and other financial assistance. At the least, he said, the city could do a better job of explaining that process to the public.

A spokesman for the development corporation said: “We’re confident that when the Comptroller meets with us, he’ll agree that our process is open and that our programs help businesses, including supermarkets, create jobs and grow in distressed neighborhoods.”

The Growing Problem in Agricultural Markets - WSJ

The Growing Problem in Agricultural Markets - WSJ

A government report last month of record crops startled agriculture markets. Tuesday could bring the first in a series of aftershocks.

Corn prices have plummeted 16% and soybeans by 7% since the Department of Agriculture said Jan. 12 that American farmers produced more of each than ever before. Many observers expected a lower forecast because they thought the crop would suffer due to bad weather, but instead the market faced a surprise glut.

There may be more on the way. The USDA is due to release its estimate of world supply and demand Tuesday morning. Analysts already anticipate a bumper crop from Argentina and Brazil, including at least 65 million tons of soybeans from Brazil. That would be about 14% larger than the prior year's production.

If the latest number is even larger than expected, that could deepen or prolong the recent price drops. If it is on the lower end, "the markets could react with a bounce," said Terry Roggensack, an agriculture specialist at the Hightower Report in Chicago. (The report also marks the first official reading on orange-crop losses after freezing Florida temperatures last month.)

Even absent new shocks Tuesday, there is more potential turmoil ahead. When it issued the surprising report, the Agriculture Department also said there was "significant unharvested acreage" of both crops. It pledged to resurvey farmers to see what they were able to harvest amid wintry weather. The unusual update is due March 10, and it has caused "a greater level of uncertainty" about the January report, said Richard Feltes, an analyst at MF Global.

On March 31, the market may get a sense of how U.S. farmers are reacting to the glut and the price drops, when the USDA says how many acres it expects them to devote to various crops this spring. That is a roadmap to what growers think they can produce profitably, and could therefore hint at the glut's staying power.

All this takes place against the backdrop of booming global population and rapid growth in the developing world, which are creating great change on farms world-wide that feed those more numerous and increasingly prosperous mouths.

The recent crop sizes and price moves show agricultural markets adjusting to the changing terrain.

Michelle Obama Kicking Off Anti-Obesity Drive With Oval Office Event - Politics Daily

Michelle Obama Kicking Off Anti-Obesity Drive With Oval Office Event - Politics Daily

First Lady Michelle Obama launches the Obama administration's anti-childhood obesity drive Tuesday with a media blitz, including White House events and cabinet members fanning out to deliver speeches and also taking legislation to Capitol Hill.

Mrs. Obama will for the first time enter the Oval Office on "official business" Tuesday morning when she sits with President Obama as he signs "a memorandum on childhood obesity" as part of the first lady's taking charge of the national campaign.

At noon, the drive she is overseeing--named "Let's Move"-- is unveiled with Tiki Barber, NBC correspondent and former NFL football player; Dr. Judith Palfrey, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Will Allen from Milwaukee, WI, who is a leader in the effort to bring fresh produce to inner cities and urban areas; Mayors Chip Johnson of Hernando, Mississippi, and Joseph Curtatone of Somerville, Massachusetts, who are leading efforts in their communities to reduce childhood obesity, and local students.

Six cabinet secretaries have also been tapped to attend, what the East Wing is calling "an unprecedented showing of Cabinet support at an event held by First Lady Michelle Obama."

Meanwhile, in excerpts from a speech Tom Vilsack was to have given Monday at the National Press Club -- but had to cancel due to after-effects of the weekend snowstorm in Washington -- the agriculture secretary mounts an argument that kids who don't eat right may develop learning and health problems that have an impact on other classmates.

"Ask any teacher how students who fail to eat a healthy breakfast or lunch perform in class," Vilsack said in excerpts obtained by Politics Daily. "Hungry kids don't learn as well. . . . If we want and need our children fully prepared for a competitive world we cannot afford for them to be hungry." Even classmates can be affected, he said, when undernourished kids fail to compete and challenge in classrooms and playgrounds.

Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, is also calling for school vending machines to sell healthy stuff instead of junk food with empty calories. "Cookies, cakes, pastries, and high-fat salty snacks are three times more likely to be sold outside the school cafeteria than fruits or vegetables.

"Foods served in vending machines and the a la carte line shouldn't undermine our efforts to enhance the health of the school environment. We must have the capacity to set standards for all the foods served and sold in schools. It doesn't mean the end of vending machines in schools -- but instead ensuring that they are filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation's children," Vilsack's prepared text said.

In an interview taped as part of the kick off, Mrs. Obama tells ABC's Robin Roberts, "There is no expert on the planet who says the government telling people what to do does any good." The first lady is not holding herself up as a purist: "I love burgers and fries and I love ice cream and cake," she said. The point, however, is to "balance that out" so people are not "facing life threatening illness."

Congress must reauthorize the school lunch program -- which includes nutrition guidelines -- and Vilsack, in his text, outlined eight elements the Obama White House is looking to include in the legislative package.

Here is his overview:

1. Improving access to the school nutrition programs must be a priority. States and local communities need be fully engaged as partners in our efforts to identify innovative strategies to ending child hunger. We cannot rest while so many of our young children struggle with access to food, which is why I'm calling on Congress to provide tools to increase participation, streamline applications, and eliminate gap periods. Another strategy for getting more children into the programs should be simplifying the application process through increased direct certification. If a child already qualifies for other assistance programs there is no reason why the parents of that child need to be bothered filling out one more application to qualify for school breakfast or lunch. Bonus payments should be offered to schools that effectively reach out to children who currently qualify but who are not participating

2. Increasing participation in School Breakfast must be part of reauthorization. On school days, almost two-thirds of children who participate in the lunch programs do not eat a school breakfast. And School Lunch is served in around 100,000 schools, while the breakfast program is only available in 88,000. We should be providing higher reimbursement rates for schools serving breakfast and combining that support with USDA-purchased foods to give more children the option of a healthy breakfast.

3. Helping to substantially improve the nutritional quality of the meals being served to our children is high on the list of 'must haves' in reauthorization. A recent Institute of Medicine Study commissioned by USDA sounded an alarm about the nutritional value of school meals. The study concluded that our children are eating too much sugar, salt, and fats and too few fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy products. This mix may help explain why one-half of the calories consumed by children ages 6-11 in this country are "empty" calories. We need to better align our meals with the Dietary Guidelines, leading to increased consumption of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low fat and fat free dairy products. USDA is working as aggressively as possible to implement the Institute of Medicine recommendations, but we also know that the improved foods will increase costs for local schools. That is why I am calling on Congress to offer support in the form of financial reimbursements and equipment as part of this reauthorization.

4. Recognizing that many schools do not have the equipment in place to improve food selections, the reauthorization should include funding to improve school kitchens so they can provide meals that meet the Dietary Guidelines and offer fresh fruits and vegetables. At the same time, we need to support school food service providers with resources for the critical training and credentialing they need to do their jobs.

5. The reauthorization effort should also ensure that all foods served in schools are healthy and nutritious. A 2006 study showed that cookies, cakes, pastries, and high fat salty snacks are three times more likely to be sold outside the school cafeteria than fruits or vegetables. Foods served in vending machines and the a la carte line shouldn't undermine our efforts enhance the health of the school environment. We must have the capacity to set standards for all the foods served and sold in schools. It doesn't mean the end of vending machines in schools – but instead ensuring that they are filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation's children.

6. Making sure that parents and students have correct and complete nutritional information about foods being served in schools must be part of the reauthorization effort. With better information and simple assessments parents can know what is available in their child's cafeteria and can assist their children in making the right nutritional choices.

7. Strengthening the link between local farmers and school cafeterias must remain a priority for this legislation. Supporting farm-to-school programs will increase the amount of produce available to cafeterias and help to support local farmers by establishing regular, institutional buyers.

8. Guaranteeing the integrity of the nutrition programs remains central to a credible reauthorization. Support for new technology will help schools avoid inaccuracies in eligibility requirements, and maintain the confidence that our help is only provided to those who need i

EU gets 'Euro-leaf' logo for organic food - BBC

EU gets 'Euro-leaf' logo for organic food - BBC

A new EU-wide "Euro-leaf" logo will be compulsory from 1 July for all pre-packaged organic food produced in any of the 27 EU member states.

The green logo, featuring the 12 EU stars in the shape of a leaf, will be optional for imported produce.

Existing national logos for organic food will be allowed to appear next to the new EU logo.

A German student won a competition to design the new symbol. Dusan Milenkovic got a prize of 6,000 euros (£5,254).

Some 130,000 people voted online to choose the symbol and Mr Milenkovic's entry got 63% of the overall vote. The competition was organised by the European Commission.