Supermarkets
Supermarkets are the are the gateway of food and agricultural products in the Global North with a handful of retail chains dominating food sales in many Western countries. The resulting and increasing buyer power of large supermarket chains can have negative consequences for consumers, producers and retailers. These asymmetric power relations in the food chain allow for setting of terms and conditions that are more favourable for supermarkets than for producers In general SOMO works on monitoring concentration and the role of agribusiness in the food chain. SOMO’s work on supermarkets focuses especially on abusive practices and negative impacts of retail buyer power.
Supermarkets 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.
SOMO report: The profit behind your plate
22-12-2006
Food industry of developing countries suffers from retail and food multinationals
Small farmers lose in supermarket expansion
27-06-2006
SOMO research concludes that free trade in fruit and vegetables has a negative impact on small farmers and producers in developing countries.
