Fruit & Vegetables
The global fruit and vegetable sector has a strong international
dimension: every day, large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables
are flown around the world. Western supermarkets offer an ever greater
variety of foods, and obtain an ever greater part of their fruits and
vegetables supply from developing countries.
The fruit and vegetable sector shows a tendency of strong concentration of trade for each agricultural product, that is controlled from production to distribution by only a few large companies.
SOMO investigates the specific characteristics of this sector focussing on the influence of trade and distribution on the production process and the labour conditions in the fruit and vegetables sector.
Fruit & Vegetables News
Fruit from Ahold leaves a bitter aftertaste
06-01-2011
Starvation wages, extremely long working days without a permanent contract and no trade union to stand up for you. This is the bitter aftertaste left by many of the fruit and vegetables in Dutch supermarkets such as Albert Heijn (Ahold). That’s the conclusion of ‘Bitter Fruit’, a report published by SOMO today. Although the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands says that it works to ensure responsible production, many – usually seasonal - workers in the fruit and vegetable sector in developing countries still struggle under poor working conditions. Better regulations and monitoring, as well as pressure on suppliers and governments in production countries, are therefore sorely needed.
Worldwide training and advice on CSR
21-05-2010
Alongside carrying out research, SOMO regularly gives training and advice to social organisations in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in the context of building capacity and spreading knowledge. In March, SOMO gave a training to Chinese social organisations in order to deploy CSR effectively in the promotion of sustainable agriculture in sectors such as tea. Furthermore, SOMO issued advice to the research of a coalition of consumer organisations. This advice was targeted at their research methodology for a study into the effects of spending at European supermarkets for food suppliers in developing countries.
