International food and drink group Princes has announced 100% of the tomatoes it processed from its Italian supply chain in 2018 came from farms with independent ethical accreditation. At the end of the 2018 tomato season, all the tomatoes Princes processed came from a source farm in Puglia that holds either Global GAP GRASP or SA8000 accreditation. Since 2015, the business has conducted over 4,000 (980 in 2018) in-field inspections of growers and farming cooperatives in its supply chain. Princes also has complete visibility of the movement of tomatoes during the annual harvest traceable through a GPS system installed on its trucks.
Minster of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Andrew Doyle, has announced that 2018 advance payments for farmers in the Organic Farming Scheme commenced on Friday, 7 December. The first advance payments were issued at the end of last week with more scheduled during December. It is envisaged that in excess of €5 million will issue to over 1,100 farmers this month.
Last week, as part of routine operations, Revenue officers seized over 8 million smuggled cigarettes that had arrived into Dublin Port. The cigarettes were discovered with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner when officers conducted an examination of freight, which arrived into Dublin from Rotterdam. The seized cigarettes, branded ‘Mayfair’ and ‘Richmond’, have a retail value of almost €4 million, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €3.3 million.
The price of food is at risk of rising between 5–10% if there is a disorderly Brexit, warned Bank of England governor Mark Carney. In extreme cases, food prices would rise by 10%, reflecting a potential drop in the value of the pound (a 1.5% higher food price for each 5% drop), tariffs imposed and increased costs at the border as imports are checked. Carney stressed that these worst-case scenarios were highly unlikely.
Diageo was named Britain’s Most Admired Company 2018 by Management Today. In addition to winning the overall award, Diageo also scooped individual category awards; for Quality of Management, the Beverage Sector and Corporate Governance. The news was revealed last night at a ceremony in central London, where Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive, and Mairead Nayager, Chief Human Resources Officer accepted the award on behalf of Diageo.
Smurfit Kappa launched its new ‘Our Open Community’ brochure, which provides an insight into the valuable corporate social responsibility (CSR) work carried out by its employees this year. ‘People’ is one of the five strategic pillars of SKG’s global sustainability strategy along with forest, climate change, water, and waste. Smurfit Kappa has developed strong relationships with people in local communities to build a sustainable future by investing in areas such as education, the environment, health and wellbeing, and social inclusiveness projects.
Eighty percent of shoppers in the UK believe that retailers need to do more to tackle the issue of plastic waste, according to a study commissioned by the compostable packaging company TIPA. Six out of 10 shoppers feel that it is the retailer’s responsibility to cut down the environmental impact of plastic waste.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
