Amsterdam, 08/07/2003: A new group wants to put "ethical" coffee on supermarket shelves across the globe. The Utz Kapeh Foundation, whose name means "Good Coffee" in an ancient Mayan language, guarantees basic standards for poor peasants hit by rock-bottom prices and inhumane living and working conditions. It aims to do so without putting up retail prices out of the reach of ordinary consumers.
Utz Kapeh, recently spun off from Ahold as an independent group, is an alternative to FairTrade coffee, which retails at a higher price than mainstream brands. Ahold -- which early this year finished certifying all the farms that supply 12,000 tons of coffee it purchases each year -- absorbs the slightly higher prices it pays to farmers.
Farms get Utz Kapeh certification after pledging to adhere to a code that includes fair wages and healthcare for workers and curbing waste and pollution.
Jobs are being lost in the agrifood industry because supermarkets are replacing local quality assured produce with cheap imports, the Ulster Farmers' Union has claimed.
The UFU says supermarkets' sourcing policies are leaving some parts of the local agriculture industry in an impossible position, on the one hand demanding quality assured produce (with associated higher costs) from local suppliers and then sourcing cheap imports when it suits them.
Safeway has set out its corporate social responsibility targets in its 2003 CSR Report. A key focus is to develop and motivate its workforce. Lawrence Christensen, chariman of Safeway's CSR group, said, "Our vision is to be recognised as business which strategically balances social, environmental and economic priorities."
Even more dramatic than the concentration of supermarkets has been the concentration of food brokers, the middlemen in the food industry. There are now just three privately held companies in the U.S. that dominate this field: Acosta, Advantage Sales and Marketing, and Crossmark. All three have quadruped in size over the past decade. At that point there were round 2,500 of regional grocery brokers.
Through acquisition and hard competition, these three dominate the majority of the business between them. They are now working on expanding abroad, buying up local distributors from Europe to Australia.
Supermarket chains have vowed to continue to push locally produced foods on to their shelves throughout the Westcountry. It follows on from the ground-breaking decision by Waitrose to dedicate 50 per cent of a store in Cornwall to exclusively locally-produced fare.
Last year supermarket giant Sainsbury's admitted that the average store stocked just 300 locally-produced products out of 20,000 lines on sale.
Joining the drive are Sainsbury's, Tesco and Somerfield. Meinir Phillips, Tesco's new marketing manager, said: "By having a strong presence in the regions we can build a more accurate picture of local markets and develop closer relationships with suppliers.
"This is part of our continuing support for UK farmers and a response to customers who want to support their region by buying from local producers."
