Stresses on ‘just-in-time’ food supply chains caused by Covid-19 could spur change in how modern retailers factor in unsold produce as food inequality grows internationally, according to nutrition strategist Barbara Bray.
“Taking regions such as North America and Europe – where traditionally, we have low levels of food insecurity in our population – we are now seeing that because we have a widening gap between the rich and the poor, it’s affecting people’s ability to be well-fed effectively nourished,” Bray said.
In her keynote speech at the Women in Food and Agriculture Digital Festival, Bray explained that distribution of unsold food could go a long way in tackling food poverty.
The online conference, which has almost 600 attendees registered, takes place on December 8-9, 2020.
Bray was awarded an MBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours and is a former Nuffield scholar. She is also is currently director of the Oxford Farming Conference.
Bray told delegates consumer complacency had a part to play.
‘When something runs out, it runs out’
“In first-world countries, we have always been quite relaxed around the supply chain because of the fact supermarkets are stocked 100% of the time, and there’s never a gap on the shelf,” she said.
“Obviously, back in March, that was a major issue with plenty of gaps on the shelf. It’s in our interest to take a look at how we do – especially in the UK – ‘just-in-time’ procurement.
“The model that we use is replicated all over Europe – it’s not unique to the UK, but we are unique in that we are an island, so we have to get in right the minute we cross the channel.
Where I see the biggest ‘win’ in our supply chain is looking at how we carry out our demand forecasting, how we explain to growers what we need to plant.
“Inevitably, they’ll have a figure [which represents] 100%, and they might plant 105% just to make sure they never run out of product – if there’s a hailstorm or a quality issue, there’s always a bit of surplus.
“But what we haven’t been doing is managing that surplus. It’s there. It’s inherent. We know that no grower is going to underplant for their sales figures or no retailer is going to understock.
We need to identify this surplus food and have a stream that when it is surplus it has a place to go to. That is where the low-hanging fruit is.
“It’s about identifying the surplus food and asking: Do we put it into a charity stream, do we put it into a further processing stream or is there a middle-ground, is there a community project it can go to?
“But to have some kind of way of moving this surplus food – which we know exists – out of that sector and into something else.
“That’s also tightening up our availability in supermarkets and not having the expectation that there will be more than 100% availability – if something runs out, it runs out.”
