Consolidated Control of Food Chain

Oakland Institute USA, has released a New Policy Brief Reveals that Consolidated Control of Food Leads to Declining Food Security, Economic Health, and Labor Standards :

Facing Goliath : Challenging the Impacts of Retail Consolidation on our Local Economies, Communities, and Food Security
This new policy brief from the Oakland Institute exposes how corporate consolidation in food retail has put our access to a reliable supply of healthy and affordable food at risk.

The top five food retailers, which now control more than half of all grocery sales in the country, have gained unprecedented market power," said Katy Mamen, Oakland Institute Fellow and author of the Policy Brief. "As a result, cost savings garnered through increased bargaining power are generally not being passed on to the consumer, supermarkets are abandoning low-income communities where profit margins are lower, and labor standards are being forced down."

The shift from small and medium scale food stores to big box stores brings broader economic turmoil for many communities. When a retail mega-store enters a community, independent shops that serve the local community are often forced to close. New Wal-Mart stores in a community have been associated with increased poverty levels and a decline in locally owned and operated businesses.
"In the U.S., the independent business owner is held in high regard - but small businesses throughout the food supply chain, from farmers to processors to grocers are being forced out as consolidation continues, undermining the American Dream," said Mamen.

The Policy Brief teases out the architecture of change in the food supply chain, outlines some of the key impacts on local communities, and suggests strategies for bringing balance back to the food retail landscape, including:

* Developing successful and innovative regional distribution and retail models;

* Re-creating real retail diversity that includes both locally-owned outlets that source a majority of their products locally and products that are direct marketed by producers;

* Fostering locally-owned and operated retail outlets in low-income communities;

* Working to balance the public subsidy and support system, which currently disproportionately favors large supermarket chains over independent markets;

* Raising public awareness about the social, economic and environmental benefits of locally owned and operated grocery stores.

Facing Goliath : Challenging the Impacts of Retail Consolidation on our Local Economies, Communities, and Food Security is a publication of the Oakland Institute, a think tank for research, analysis, and action whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic, and environmental justice issues.

Norwegians Sell Idli Wada Sambhar

Norwegian food company Orkla ASA has adopted a gradual approach to its entry into the Indian market, with its recent acquisition of Bangalore based, packaged food retailer MTR Foods, offering a chance to learn about the Indian food industry and potentially serving as a foot-hold for future growth.
In farmgate language, this is called the bull, gingerly sniffing the back side of a cow to tell if it is on heat or not.
This comes on the back of MTR expanding into Chennai and New Delhi.

Management Gurus and Food Retail

Management gurus are gingerly sniffing the Indian retail food pie from all sides and from all directions. The foreign gurus are doing it gingerly and reading up on the George Fernandes years when Coke was ousted, while the Indian gurus are doing it more stridently, flaunting their Indian credentials and inside knowledge of how the "system works".

The economic analysts with an eye on the Indian GDP, are unanimous that the Indian economy needs the big bucks, the international food retailing best practices, the excellence of global logistics solutions providers, and trimming the flab of the conventional and aboriginal food supply chain system in India. The Indian politicians have played a sterling role with their six lane highways and are unmindful of any social fissures in the rural society or the need for any concept of social security, regulatory frameworks, food control regimes and ethical policy led transparent politics.

In fact, the Indian Agriculture Minister, is best known all over the world for his dubious wisdom of defending the acceptable pesticide levels in the milk that a mother feeds to her child. This can only happen in India.

The Indian retailers are gleeful that they enjoy the first mover advantage and have already built up a sizable reputation amongst loyal consumers with their neighbourhood food retail concept with a European choice of food items, that the Indian middle class is thirsting to shower its surplus income on.

The foreign retailers are ensuring that the political bigwigs keep up the pressure on Indian Agriculture and Commerce ministers to ensure that a level field is available to compete for the loyalty of the dosa and vada eating South Indian, the Stilton eating Europe returned Brigadier settled in Delhi, the Bengali moshai babu with his fish and rice packets, as well as the conservative Gujju with his vegetarian mix of dhokla and okra.