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WWF Romania : Only a quarter of the fruits and vegetables in the supermarkets come from Romania
Only a quarter of the fruits and vegetables and only half of the dairy products commercialized in the biggest supermarkets in Romania come from Romania, Magor Csibi, manager World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Romania stated, at the lauch of the Retailer Scorecard.
“The domineering position of chains of shops becomes bigger and bigger, going to a possible situation of monopoly, and in this context it is unavoidable we ask ourselves in what measure these companies assume, besides the profit a social role as well. Thousands of local producers, communities and industries depend on the choices and elections made by these retailers, “Magor Csibi said.
The conclusions of the report regarding the performance of market environment in retail (Fast Mover Consumer Goods) show the fact that retailers in Romania are not transparent, they ignore the local producers, their interest in the environment is not found in the practices within the market and the credibility of their answers is seriously doubted by the reality on the shelves. “ The ecological education and the nutritional education are not sufficient to make the supermarkets responsible. It is needed as well to promot legislation which should support domestic producers in order to reach the shelves with the products.The same chains of shops have, in Brussels, special shelves for ecological products from domestic production. It is a matter of market, as well as of legislation” Daciana Sarbu, member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Commission in the European Parliament said.
According to the ranking offered by the WWF representatives, no retailer out of the 10 analysed in the WWF survey managed to get 50% of the maximum score.
The highest percentage was obtained by Mega Image (42.92%) followed by Billa (39.11%), Lidl (33.63%), Kaufland (28.18%), Auchan (17.26%), Carrefour (17.17%), Cora (15.38%), Real (13.89%), Profi (10.54%) and Penny Market (8.57%)
The greenest category of produce commercialized by retailers from domestic production is that of eggs – 99% and milk – 67% according to the WWF study, an average score, while fruits and vegetables (26.85%) and fish, washing powder and paper products get a red ticket. No company out of the Top 10 Retailers commercialized fruits or Romanian vegetables coming from ecological agriculture, the Retailer Scorecard organizers say. Only three out of the 10 retailers commercialise frozen fish or fish tins certified MSC ( Marine Stewardship Council) and only two retailers out of 10 have washing power certified ecologically. “At the level of the EU, the European exchanges negotiate, mainly politically. You take my coffee, I take your cheese, for example. We managed however, to stop some imports which could have a negative impact on the population, such as cloned animals meat from the US. But, finally, everything is about profit” Daciana Sarbu said.
The Retailer Scorecard survey aims at finding the performance of retails in six key sectors of business with impact on the environment and society – fish, dairy products, vegetables and fruits, paper products, washing powder and environment policies. The two instruments for research used were the observation form, filled in by the WWF representatives of Romania in shops and the questionnaire made with companies, the total score being equal with the sums of the scores obtained in each method. The report is the result of the survey undertaken by WWF between 18 April – 18 May.