Food safety, social compliance and sustainability, in relation to commercial fruit and vegs strategi

Most times, growers blame retailers for their poor revenues (mostly discount chains). But we, as retailer,face a competitive world. Consumer continuously asks for better prices and higher quality. Now in this timeof crisis, the price factor becomes really important. But to focus only on price can have serious undesirableconsequences. When retailer sells cheaper, he has to buy cheaper. When grower receives lower revenues,he has to produce cheaper, usually paying less attention to quality as “nobody pays for it”. But when finallyconsumer perceives lower quality at shops, he does not like it and does not buy. And all the money investedin the supply chain, even if lower, gets lost. Therefore, the model AH has been developing in the latest 50 years is a model of partnership. Quality is aMUST. But at the same time, teamwork with all players in the supply chain, being directed by the same goal(consumer satisfaction), allows to look for all possible efficiencies in the chain, to reduce cost and transmitthat effort to consumer. In that sense, consumer is receiving a better quality at a more reasonable price. However, we are all living in a dynamic context. Citrus varieties evolute and logistics also improve. Newshipping lines arise, more a modern frigo containers appear and new fruit terminals are built in new productionareas. Then it is easier to sell citrus from wherever production area to wherever retailer in the world. That’sglobalization and nobody can stop it. We are selling at winter time nearly all our citrus from Spain. And wehave to face the concurrence of other retailers selling from other production areas in the Mediterranean. Asretailer, we (AH) apply strict policies in food safety and social compliance, so all growers from wherever origincan compete on equal conditions. We understand that reduction of pesticides has an implicit cost. SocialSecurity, safety at work, working in legal and reasonable conditions have costs. But citrus is synonymous ofHealth. We ha