Margaret McCarthy, Business Dev Manager, Bord Bia - The Irish Food Board
Irish F&B exporters to the Dutch market will be interested to read of two recent developments in the local retail channel – firstly, retailers AH & Jumbo have signed up to Oxfam’s ‘Behind the Barcodes’ scheme and will soon be declaring all private label suppliers as part of a new human rights policy. The policy will map out the human rights risks in their supply chains, and the scheme will annually survey products to ensure they don’t fall short of the standards set out to protect employees and farmers in developing countries. This move will position the retailers as leaders within the 16 member group that subscribe to Oxfam’s programme.
A number of Irish exporters supply private label products to both retailers in multiple categories.
Secondly, in a bid to reduce waste, Albert Heijn is the next retailer to trial dynamic pricing - a system that has been developed by an Israeli startup Wasteless. Albert Heijn have applied the AI discount system to their chicken and fish offering in a store close to Amsterdam. The data set captures a number of variables including remaining shelf life, weather, location, stock & historical sales, and the shelf pricing shows two prices, the normal price and the reduced price on the expiration date.
If successful, it will be employed on a wider basis as part of Albert Heijn’s sustainability policy and will likely be rolled across the entire fresh & chilled offering. Similar trials conducted by a Spanish retailer suggest that not only does dynamic pricing contribute to less food waste, but it also helps to increase sales. Albert Heijn already works on a combination of initiatives to help reduce waste including partnerships with foodbanks.
For more information contact Margaret.mccarthy@bordbia.ie