William Burgess, CEO of leading fresh produce supplier, Produce World, has called on the food industry to develop better partnerships, and a greater understanding of the grass roots, in order to deliver sustainable supply chains.
William was speaking at a recent conference run by the Ethical Corporation, entitled ’How to engage suppliers in sustainability’.
He said: "Delivering sustainability is, like so many things in the supply chain, about developing mutual trust and respect. We are looking for long-term commitment from our retail customers, and we expect to make the same commitment to our suppliers. That applies through thick and thin. There will undoubtedly be challenges along the way, but we have to face them together if we are to overcome them.
"There has to be a shared strategy on long-term sustainability that everyone commits to. To make that work the grower, the processor and the retailer have to develop a better understanding of the issues that apply at grass roots level."
Responsible Sourcing is one of the four pillars of Produce World’s CSR programme, which has been in operation for the past two years. The other three pillars are Environmental Stewardship, Community Impact and Workplace Culture. The company has made the key measures of this programme’s success available for anyone to see on its website.
As a result of this initiative – among other things – Produce World received an award for Innovative Communications from the Ethical Corporation earlier this year.
Produce World is now the UK’s largest supplier of fresh vegetables. It employs over 1,200 permanent staff in the UK and Spain, and supplies a variety of root vegetables, potatoes, brassicas, onions, garlic and leeks to leading retailers.
William said: "As well as long-term relationships, and commitment across the supply chain, we also need the opportunity to manage the fresh vegetable category for our customers. This enables us to better understand our customers’ needs, so we can deliver sustainability and give them a competitive advantage."
He described how long-term commitment from Waitrose has enabled Produce World to invest several million pounds in extending and modernising its potato plant. This has allowed the company to improve the sustainability of the supply chain, while reducing costs for the retailer.
He also told the conference how a shared strategy with Sainsbury’s had resulted in significant investment in cool chain technology, and new state-of-the-art field harvesting and packing machinery.
William concluded: "We need to continually invest in our supply chains in order to create efficient and sustainable businesses of the future. Long-term relationships, based on mutual trust, will enable this to happen."