Italian retailer Coop is investing €1 million to eradicate what it calls the “fruit and vegetable mafia” through targeted checks of its suppliers and good management practices.
The Buoni e Giusti Coop project will involve the retailer working with 832 of its fruit and vegetable suppliers. It will closely examine the 13 sectors in which cases of worker exploitation, illegal employment practices and food scams are most frequently reported.
Marco Pedroni commented that if no action is taken against unethical practices in the supply chain, the search for the lowest price will end up “clashing with human rights”.
He pointed out that illegal activities currently affect 400,000 workers, of which 80 per cent are migrants.
According to Coop, its private-label products (around 4,000) are already strictly controlled to prevent fraud and counterfeiting.
The retailer guarantees that these products, which account for 27 per cent of total sales, are overseen from production to the distribution phase.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
