The challenge of making the complex, simple

By Rachel Chambers, QFVG CEO

Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself." The labyrinth like world of Queensland's fresh produce supply chain certainly lives up to this complexity. And as someone tasked with unraveling the intricacies of the horticulture supply chain to stakeholders, simplifying the wicked web of issues remains a work in progress.?

A current battleground in this complexity is the supermarket debate. A topic oversimplified by media and politicians. The narrative of 'bad supermarket, good consumer' falls well short in capturing the intricate dynamics at play.??

On the consumer end, the debate echoes concern of potential price gouging and customer exploitation, on the grower end significant viability concerns of poor prices that fail to account for a significant 30-65% increase in production costs over the last three years.??

Supermarkets cite the Food and Grocery Code which supposedly exists to ensure fair dealings, yet a recent report reveals disturbing statistics:??

• 33% of respondents raised issues with their dealings with buying teams;??
• 100% felt unsatisfied with responses from both buying teams and the Code Arbiter; and??
• 53% of respondents fear damaging commercial relationships as an impediment to raising issues.?

Add in that some growers deal directly with supermarkets, whilst others go through wholesale. Some growers have contracts, others do not. That horticulture is a supply and demand business, that each business model has a different cost structure. What is clear - is that not one size fits all, which ironically is also what makes things very muddy and difficult to explain whilst attempting to find solutions!?

And supermarkets are just one battleground currently being fought in the supply chain.??

Government policies have been so far this year overshadowed by this singular topic of mass deflection. Deflection away from the Federal Government’s 18-months of consistent changes in IR policy and legislation, changes which have directly added to input costs. For those who are sitting and watching the media cycle – rest assured we are going to unpack this one too shortly.??

And then in Queensland we have natural disasters literally left, right and centre! Adding yet another burden for growers to contend with (not to mention the increased costs).??

As the Cost of Living takes centre stage in upcoming elections, brace yourself for a years’ worth of trying to make the highly complicated fresh food supply chain, simple.??