EU relents and lets a banana be a banana (IHT)

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EU relents and lets a banana be a banana (IHT)
By Stephen Castle
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
BRUSSELS: In the European Union, carrots must be firm but not woody, cucumbers must not be too curved and celery has to be free of any type of cavity. This was the law, one that banned overly curved, extra-knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.
But in a victory for opponents of European regulation, 100 pages of legislation determining the size, shape and texture of fruit and vegetables have been torn up. On Wednesday, EU officials agreed to axe rules laying down standards for 26 products, from peas to plums.
In doing so, the authorities hope they have killed off regulations routinely used by critics - most notably in the British media - to ridicule the meddling tendencies of the EU.
After years of news stories about the permitted angle or curvature of fruit and vegetables, the decision Wednesday also coincided with the rising price of commodities. With the cost of the weekly supermarket visit on the rise, it has become increasingly hard to defend the act of throwing away food just because it looks strange.
Beginning in July next year, when the changes go into force, standards on the 26 products will disappear altogether. Shoppers will the be able to chose their produce whatever its appearance.
Under a compromise reached with national governments, many of which opposed the changes, standards will remain for 10 types of fruit and vegetables, including apples, citrus fruit, peaches, pears, strawberries and tomatoes.
But those in this category that do not meet European norms will still be allowed onto the market, providing they are marked as being substandard or intended for cooking or processing.
"This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said Mariann Fischer Boel, European commissioner for agriculture, who argued that regulations were better left to market operators.
"In these days of high food prices and general economic difficulties," Fischer Boel added, "consumers should be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape."
That sentiment was not shared by 16 of the EU's 27 nations - including Greece, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Poland - which tried to block the changes at a meeting of the Agricultural Management Committee.
Several worried that the abolition of standards would lead to the creation of national ones, said one official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
Copa-Cogeca, which represents European agricultural trade unions and cooperatives, also criticized the changes. "We fear that the absence of EU standards will lead member states to establish national standards and that private standards will proliferate," said its secretary general, Pekka Pesonen.
But the decision to scale back on standards will be welcomed by euro-skeptics who have long pilloried the EU executive's interest in intrusive regulation.
One such controversy revolved around the correct degree of bend in bananas - a type of fruit not covered by the Wednesday ruling.
In fact, there is no practical regulation on the issue. Commission Regulation (EC) 2257/94 says that bananas must be "free from malformation or abnormal curvature," though Class 1 bananas can have "slight defects of shape" and Class 2 bananas can have full "defects of shape."
By contrast, the curvature of cucumbers has been a preoccupation of European officials. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1677/88 states that Class I and "Extra class" cucumbers are allowed a bend of 10 millimeters per 10 centimeters of length. Class II cucumbers can bend twice as much.
It also says cucumbers must be fresh in appearance, firm, clean and practically free of any visible foreign matter or pests, free of bitter taste and of any foreign smell.
Such restrictions will disappear next year, and about 100 pages of rules and regulations will go as well, a move welcomed by Neil Parish, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee.
"Food is food, no matter what it looks like," Parish said. "To stop stores selling perfectly decent food during a food crisis is morally unjustifiable. Credit should be given to the EU agriculture commissioner for pushing through these proposals. Consumers care about the taste and quality of food, not how it looks."

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Aldi's share of grocery market hits record (IHT)

Reuters
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
LONDON: German-owned low-cost supermarket chain Aldi has achieved its best ever share of the UK grocery market as budget-focussed groups continue to outpace rivals in the consumer downturn, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Aldi's sales rose by 22.1 percent in the 12 weeks to Oct 5, boosting its share of the market to a record 3 percent, researcher TNS Worldpanel said.
Of the country's four biggest supermarket chains, Morrison and Asda had sales growth of 9.6 percent and 9 percent respectively, outpacing market leader Tesco , which had growth of 5.5 percent.
TNS Worldpanel said food price inflation was 9.3 percent during the 12-week period, adding that the rate had now peaked and was expected to fall towards the end of the year.

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Books on Supermarkets

I'm not a fan of supermarkets, for reasons too numerous to mention.

My previous post of a story about a trend in the U.S.A for supermarkets to become smaller prompted me to suggest some reading for anyone who shares my concerns about the power of supermarkets.

Read any of these books and you'll be hard pressed to want to enter a supermarket again, even if you do so rarely now.


The links are, I'm afraid, to amazon.co.uk but most are available at amazon.com

P.S Don't forget to pick up my book while you're shopping (!) which explains, amongst other things, how England is the only country in the world to have supermarkets organised along class lines. Weird, but true.

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For shoppers in a hurry, U.S. grocery stores shrink (IHT)

HARMAR TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania: Like cars and homes, grocery stores in the United States are beginning to shrink.
After years of building bigger stores - many larger than a soccer field and carrying 60,000 items - retailers are experimenting with radically smaller grocery stores that emphasize prepared meals, fresh produce and grab-and-go drinks. The idea is to lure time-starved shoppers who want to pick up fast meals without paying restaurant prices or wandering down long grocery aisles.
Safeway has opened a smaller-format store in Southern California, and Jewel-Osco is building one in Chicago. Wal-Mart plans to open four Marketside stores in the Phoenix area this autumn, and Whole Foods Market is considering opening smaller stores.
And here in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, the grocery chain Giant Eagle opened a Giant Eagle Express last year that is about one-sixth the size of its regular stores. It offers gasoline pumps, wireless Internet and flat-screen televisions in a small café, a drive-through pharmacy and an expansive delicatessen that offers sushi, rotisserie chickens and ready-to-heat dinners.
"It's perfect," said Dusty McDonald, a 29-year-old bank teller who was buying breakfast sandwiches recently for her co-workers at the Giant Eagle Express. "It's on my way to work. It only takes me 10 minutes to get in and out."
The opening of smaller stores upends a long-running trend in the grocery business: building ever larger stores in the belief that consumers want choice above all. While the largest traditional grocery stores tend to be about 85,000 square feet, or 7,900 square meters, some cavernous warehouse-style stores and supercenters are two or three times that size.
Statistics compiled by the Food Marketing Institute show that the average size of a grocery store dipped slightly in 2007 - to a median of 47,500 square feet - after 20 years of steady growth.
The biggest push toward these new stores is coming from the British retailer Tesco, which made a splashy entry into the United States last autumn by opening a 10,000-square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Las Vegas.
Since then, Tesco has opened 72 more stores in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California.
Gary Smith, founder of Encore Associates, which advises the food and consumer goods industry, said the smaller stores opened by other chains were "a loud message to Tesco that they are not going to be able to walk in and grab market share."
"It's also a way for them to do some testing for if and when Tesco comes to their market," Smith added. "They are better able to counter it."
Grocery retailers face competition other than Tesco on multiple fronts. Chains ranging from Target to dollar stores are selling more groceries, and some small convenience stores are offering higher-quality food.
The big grocery chains are not thinking about closing their larger stores, which have been a success. But they hope to capture new business with the smaller stores, appealing to consumers on days when they do not have time for a long shopping trip.
"The average person goes shopping for 22 minutes," said Phil Lempert, who edits Supermarketguru.com, a Web site that tracks retail trends. "You can't see 30,000 or 40,000 products. We are moving into an era when people want less assortment."
Of course, small grocery stores have been around for eons, and some old-time neighborhood markets still exist. Meanwhile, a handful of specialty retailers have proved that shoppers will flock to smaller stores if they are offered a novel experience.
Trader Joe's, for one, has thrived by offering a limited selection of high-quality, relatively inexpensive products in quirky stores that are 15,000 square feet or smaller. Aldi and Save-A-Lot are drawing customers in droves by selling a limited assortment of aggressively discounted products.
What distinguishes the new stores is that they are being built by more traditional retailers, and they emphasize fresh, prepared foods for busy consumers.
Kevin Srigley, a senior vice president at Giant Eagle, whose stores are spread across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, said that the express store sought to provide customers with a "smart stop to save you time on the things you need most," in addition to offering fresh foods.
Will customers come to the smaller stores? Analysts said Tesco's initial sales had fallen short of expectations, and the company had stopped opening stores for several months this year to assess customer feedback and make adjustments. The company has not released figures detailing the Fresh & Easy stores' performance.
Will Carless contributed reporting from Laguna Hills, California.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/10/business/grocery.php



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Two articles from the IHT about the success of low-cost supermarkts (IHT)

The lure of plain vanilla from Germany (IHT)

Like its reclusive German founders, the supermarket chain Aldi does not do much to draw attention to itself.
Its stores in the United States are small and spartan, with minimal décor and a limited selection of products. They are often found in nondescript shopping strips and lack the flashy signs and window displays of some competitors. Grocery carts cost a quarter apiece, which is refundable after the cart is returned.
But as the U.S. economy sputters and consumers look to save money, the privately held Aldi is suddenly emerging as a major force in the U.S. grocery business, one that some predict could one day rival Wal-Mart.
What makes Aldi so special is that, quite simply, its prices are cheaper than just about anyone else's, including Wal-Mart's.
The company said recently that prices of its private-label products were 16 percent to 24 percent below those at discounters and big-box stores, and 40 percent less than those at traditional supermarkets.

While the chain's format might perplex some shoppers who are used to a much broader selection, Aldi officials have maintained that the advantage of shopping at its stores — cheap prices — quickly becomes clear.
For shoppers, "there isn't much of a learning curve with a head of lettuce for 99 cents," Jason Hart, president of the United States division of Aldi, told Supermarket News.
Restaurant analysts and consultants are bullish on the chain. "Aldi has been one of the best-kept secrets in the United States for 20 years," said Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop, a consulting firm that caters to the supermarket industry. "They are a force to be reckoned with."
Neil Stern, a senior partner at the retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle, said: "Aldi is one example of a chain that is ripe for the time."
The chain's low-key style reflects its reclusive, elderly founders, the octogenarian German billionaires Theo and Karl Albrecht, who reportedly live on the island of Föhr in the North Sea, where they are said to collect typewriters, play golf and tend to orchids. In 1971, Theo was kidnapped for 17 days, and the brothers have kept a low profile ever since.
The brothers split the business in two in the early 1960s, after a disagreement over whether to sell cigarettes. There are now two companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud, which owns the United States division. In 1979, Theo Albrecht bought the Trader Joe's chain, which shares Aldi's small-store format, its reliance on private-label brands and its reputation for value, albeit in a hipper and more upscale way.
An Aldi spokeswoman said that the brothers were not involved in the company's United States operations. But their reputation as relentless economizers infuses the chain, whose name is short for Albrecht Discounts.
"The typical supermarket is a minefield of hidden costs," Aldi's Web site says. "Along with your groceries, the extra freight of free bags, baggers and check acceptance is loaded into your cart every time you shop, whether you use those services or not."
Aldi's stores are designed to cut out many of those costs. While some grocery stores carry about 45,000 items, Aldi stores offer only 1,300 or so products, most of which are private-label brands. They are often displayed in the store in the cardboard box in which they were delivered.
Having so few products ensures regular turnover, reduces spoilage and labor, and gives Aldi tremendous buying power with its suppliers. With its smaller stores, the company can lower its heating and electricity bills. In addition, the stores are typically open only during peak U.S. shopping times, from 9 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Though it opened its first store in the United States in 1976, it only recently ran its first national television ad campaign. From a look at the ads on the company Web site, it doesn't seem as if the company spent much on them, either.
Credit cards and checks aren't accepted, eliminating processing fees and the cost of bad checks. Shoppers must bag their own groceries and provide their own bags — though leftover cardboard boxes are free.
So why charge for shopping carts? Aldi says customers are more likely to return their carts, so fewer carts need to be replaced and an employee isn't needed to round up carts in the parking lot.
Aldi's no-frills approach appears to be paying off. There are more than 950 stores in the United States, and it plans to add 100 in the next year. (It has 8,500 worldwide.) Supermarket News estimates that sales last year were $5.8 billion. By comparison, Wal-Mart's grocery sales in 2006 were $92 billion, according to the Food Marketing Institute, which listed Aldi's 2006 sales at $3.3 billion.

Of course, shopping at Aldi is hardly the same experience as shopping at Wegmans or Whole Foods Market, or the local Kroger or Safeway. Those stores spent the last decade catering to shoppers' desire for convenience and more upscale products like artisanal cheeses, fresh-caught fish and organic produce.
Aldi ignored the trends and stayed focused on price. For now, at least, shoppers are rewarding that decision.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/07/business/07feed.php

********************

Morrison to top growth league (IHT)

LONDON: Wm Morrison Supermarkets is set to post a 19 percent rise in first-half underlying profit on Thursday and confirm it is taking market share from bigger rivals as cash-strapped shoppers flock to its lower price stores.
Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group is also expected to confirm plans to return 500 million pounds to shareholders both this fiscal year and the next, despite having only bought about 10 percent of this year's tranche so far.
Analysts say the buyback could help underpin Morrison's shares as it faces more demanding sales comparatives in the second half of the year.
Morrison is set to report profit before tax and one-off items of 294 million pounds for the 26 weeks to August 3, according to the average forecast of 8 analysts polled by Reuters. Estimates range from 284 million to 305 million.
Like-for-like sales excluding fuel, a key industry measure, are forecast to climb 7.2 percent in the second quarter, boosted by higher food prices as grocers pass on the rising cost of commodities such as meat and dairy products.

The group is, after several integration problems, feeling the benefit of its purchase of rival Safeway in 2004 as well as its "Refresh" campaign to revamp stores and its image as a lower-priced alternative to some of its rivals.
Cash-strapped Britons are trading down to cheaper stores amid higher fuel and food costs, as well as sliding house prices.
Analysts are looking for signs of whether Morrison will step up promotional spending as it comes up against the second half's tougher sales comparatives, after having a quieter first half than some of its rivals.
They are also keen for an update on whether Morrison will try to buy stores from The Co-Operative Group, which is expected to put some on the market following its purchase of Somerfield.
Bradford-based Morrison runs around 375 stores and has a market share of about 11 percent, trailing J. Sainsbury , Wal-Mart-owned Asda and market leader Tesco .

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/09/07/business/OUKBS-UK-MORRISON-RESULTS.php

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Supermarkets rapped over unhealthy food (IHT)

LONDON: Major supermarkets were criticised by a consumer watchdog on Monday for nearly doubling the number of in-store promotions for unhealthy foods during the last two years.A National Consumer Council report found 54 percent of in-store promotions advertised sugary and fatty foods, while only one in eight of the retailers plugged fruit and vegetables."The volume of in-house promotions for fatty and sugary foods the supermarkets are all offering is staggering," said the report's author Lucy Yates."We expected to see evidence of big improvements since our last investigation, but we've been sadly disappointed."Overall Britain's third largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's came top of the survey for a second time in a row, doing well on customer information and labelling and nutrition, with the Co-operative Group in second place.
Britain's largest retailer Tesco was in joint fifth place, while Morrisons was bottom for the fourth consecutive time.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/09/01/business/OUKBS-UK-BRITAIN-SUPERMARKETS.php



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Smallest Smallholding (England)

The SmallestSmallholding is a blog from England, and the project of Lucy and her partner Rich together with our flock of 4 rescued ex-battery hens and resident cats.

The ‘Smallholding’ is a patch of land adjacent to the original garden, sited on an old unusable building site (lack of access meant that there could be no more building) that was bought up over 10 years ago by Lucy's parents. Like their garden, it too had the remnants of an old orchard, so it was turfed over and left as a large garden extension, fruit trees intact.

Lucy's blog was, like most of the blogs on Farm Blogs From Around the World, recommended to me, and she was kind enough to write to me.







"I shouldn't be surprised," Lucy wrote to me "when people message me and refer to my 'smallholding' - after all, my blog is called The Smallest Smallholding. But really, it's just a larger than average suburbanite garden with a sprinkling of fruit trees (the remnants of the market garden that stood there before our house was built circa 1919), ex-battery hens, naughty rabbits and lazy cats. "





"I fell in love with gardening and vegetable growing about three years ago. It was a gradual realisation and connection that had mostly come about through my frustration with supermarkets. I wanted clean, hearty produce. I was interested in food metres and not food miles. I wanted more control over what I put into my body, and the only way I felt I could really do that was to grow my own. It also helped that I am an avid fan of baking and cooking - the thought of producing a meal that was entirely my own produce was an attractive prospect."






"My partner Rich and I currently live in the house that I grew up in.

When it was just me, my parents and my sister, Mum and Dad bought an extra bit of land that had been lying vacant next to the long, thin garden. It had fallen into the hands of the Treasury, as it was once intended for building land, but a lack of access from the road meant that no planning permission could be granted. It was like a small secret island of brambles and bindweed. I didn't even realise that there were fruit trees in there until it was turfed over a decade ago."





"When my parents and sister moved out, Rich and I moved back in as I was studying at uni and needed somewhere to live. I didn't pay much attention to the garden, but over time began tinkering with the idea of growing vegetables after my cousin and I resurrected my late grandfather's vegetable plots. I looked at the space Rich and I had and thought it was madness. I had this land and I wasn't using it properly.

So I started digging in earnest and a few months later had removed what seemed like a tonne of builder's rubble (left over from the build that was part of the original larger plot). It had obviously been used as a dumping ground, which made my life quite difficult. But I persevered and started with two small veg plots that yielded some successes in their first year. I was hooked.

Each year I'm turning over more and more space to my veg-growing exploits."

"I'd also wanted to keep chickens for a while. Just before Christmas 2006 we rehomed 4 ex-battery hens, and it was then that I decided to create The Smallest Smallholding. This was my chance to make a stab at the Good Life. I'd idealised about it for so long, and suddenly I had the chance to make it work in my larger-than-average back garden in a semi-rural commuter town.

I wanted to be able to reach out to people, to prove that no matter what age, what income you're on, how much space or time you've got, you can do it.

I'm 25 and initially struggled to find peers that are interested in my sort of lifestyle, but through my blog have found that I'm far from alone. For a long time I'd lingered on sites like Facebook and hankered a bit after the life that my old school friends had - seemingly endless parties, cute little central London flats, jobs in PR and media in The City, fabulous dresses and countless holidays abroad. I had been destined for Oxford Uni and beyond - I'd chosen a different route and wondered if I'd made a mistake.

But looking at it now, I realise this is me. I still like sparkly dresses, but I love getting into my wellies and rummaging around in my veg plots. I love growing flowers that I know the bees and butterflies will take full advantage of. I adore stuffing my face with a big hearty soup made from my own home-grown ingredients. Watching my ex-batts enjoy their new life has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I don't feel like I'm missing out anymore, I'm feeling more complete."

"So I suppose at the moment, with a few veg plots, a small flock of hens and a lot of plans, the Smallest Smallholding is more of an ongoing, growing project that is more of an ethos than a fully-functional micro farm at the moment.

But I'm trying to swing the balance so that all my plans come into fruition eventually.

I'm a vegetarian and Rich eats meat less often than he used to (and always of the highest welfare standard), so I don't think we'll ever raise anything for the table. He says he gets more enjoyment from watching our hens flourish from the listless robots they were than he would eating a few meals of chicken.

But there's definitely lots of plans afoot to become more self-sufficient with each month and year that passes.

My blog is a way to share the journey and experience with others."

"What's the plan for the future then?

More vegetable plots and fruit bushes, ploughing onwards and upwards on this learning curve by experimenting with home-made produce - making my own jams, preserves, cheeses and bread just to start with.

Learning how to properly store veg, grappling with planting successively and less reliance on supermarkets for food are also on the list.

Perhaps planting a tiny coppice so we can provide our own winter fuel.

The possibilities are endless, it's just a case of find a way to fit it all in and manage it properly.

I'm also a keen wildlife enthusiast, so finding ways to let nature flourish and The Smallest Smallholding to regulate and take care of itself is another aim.

Sometimes it's a joy and sometimes it's nothing but boring, hard work. But ultimately, it's a journey that I've started and will continue on, and one that I'm sure I will reap the rewards from."

Thanks Lucy for a great introduction to you and your blog. I was particularly struck by her initial struggle to find peers following the same life style as her (she is 25, and has taken the road less travelled) but her blog, and I hope this blog, will help her and others to make connections with hundreds of thousands of people in the developed world who are interested in where their food comes from and producing much of it themselves.






http://www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com/
http://www.ianwalthew.com/


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