In Canada, five retailers account for 80 per cent of the grocery market. This concentration has created an imbalance in the relationship between some grocery retailers and manufacturers. Some retailers are building income streams outside of the straightforward supplier-seller relationship that consumers rarely see, including opaque listing fees, arbitrary demands for price reductions, and payments for retailer infrastructure.
That’s why it’s so important that the country’s food manufacturers and grocery retailers are now meeting to design a grocery code of practice, the goal of which is to create a more balanced relationship, ultimately to better serve the needs of consumers. As someone who spent most of my career in the United Kingdom’s dairy industry before coming to this country to serve as head of Lactalis Canada, I have experienced firsthand how a code of conduct can reduce, if not eliminate, many of the issues that have weakened Canada’s food supply chain over the past couple of decades.
Development of the U.K. code did not come without challenges. Grocery retailers had some of the same concerns that their Canadian counterparts now have, including being able to adapt business models and balance sheets that historically relied on practices that disadvantaged manufacturers.Article content
But today, every retailer I speak to in the U.K. says the code has had a positive impact, and that early fears were unfounded. They have noticed that food manufacturers are now more likely to make investments because much of the uncertainty that existed in the retailer-manufacturer relationship has been eliminated. Data show that overall investment in the grocery sector increased, and consumer prices fell, after the code was introduced.
'Consumer prices fell.' Hahahahahaha
johncarson What about changing the system? Buying Local Food when possible is a Win-Win situation. Consumers get nutrient rich, quality, natural, trustworthy food. Farmers get the benefit selling directly off the farm FoodForThought