Tighter supplies in the soft fruit sector over the last couple of years have led supply chains to become more collaborative and coordinated according to the Fresh Produce Journal.
“Because there is more demand than supply at the moment, we can now be more collaborative,” Chambers group CEO Vicky Rye told the magazine. “There is not enough fruit so why fight? We can make the sector better for everybody.”
A number of retailers are now getting their entire supply base around the table (something which used to be common 20 or 30 years ago) to discuss strategy and production volumes. As a result, the company itself is also more coordinated, with greater collaboration between the farms and the commercial and procurement teams.
According to the FPJ, Chambers’ managing director Tim Chambers describes the UK berry category as “more of a sellers’ market” at the moment. “We typically see brilliant sales all the way through the British summer. We build our customer base; sales grow and grow. But then we get to autumn. The UK season finishes, and imports aren’t ready yet. So, we lose all those customers and then start again in the winter. That is frustrating the retailers.
“There’s a lot of discussion around how you deliver a consistent premium product. And the question is whether premium should mean ‘the best ever’ or just ‘the best at that time’. That’s where retailers differ in their opinion. ‘The best at that time’ is clearly a lot easier to manage.”
