Tesco is Keeping Contracts Flexible to Fight Food Waste

The sudden transformation of the UK weather – I know, shocking, right? – from a wet and cold spring to a scorching hot summer led to a sudden influx of delicious British strawberries.

Unfortunately, this would mean that millions of strawberries which weren’t able to be sold, ran the risk of contributing to the ever-growing mountain of food waste generated in the UK. So-called on-farm food waste is a major contributor to climate change and costs producers around £1.2 billion per year. The problem is made even more severe when you consider how many people have been left in food poverty thanks to the COVID-19 crisis.

Thankfully, supermarket chain, Tesco has a flexible procurement operation and was able to ramp up its order by an extra 400 tonnes and introduced a unique offer to make sure it sold as many of the extra punnets as possible.

Tesco is working with non-profit, WRAP to improve forecasting tools which would help the industry better prepare for the waxing and waning of fruit and vegetable crops. Collaborating with suppliers and keeping contracts flexible is the best way to respond to these unexpected events.