Research

Based on Feedback’s experience working with farmers through our Gleaning Network, and a survey of farmers, this report examines the systemic role that supermarkets play in the overproduction and subsequent waste of food on UK Farms. Farmers we surveyed reported reported that together they wasted approximately 22,000-37,000 tonnes per year, equal to enough produce to provide up to 250,000 people with five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a year.

Based on extensive research into supply chain food waste in Peru, Senegal, South Africa, the UK and a major European port. This report’s findings show a concentration of power in the groceries sector has allowed supermarkets to dictate the terms and conditions by which food is grown, harvested, and transported, and that this concentration of power has given supermarkets the power to force suppliers to waste food through stringent cosmetic specifications and unfair rejections of food.

This report shows that Kenyan farmers are being subjected to unfair trading practices such as last minute cancellation of orders and unnecessarily strict cosmetic standards by European retail buyers resulting in massive amounts of food waste. As a result of Feedback’s work, in April 2016 Tesco agreed to change their rules on Kenyan green beans to stop forcing their suppliers to top and tail their produce. They estimate this will save more than 160 tonnes of food waste a year.