To: Groceries Code Adjudicator , Mark White

Red Shed, reform grocery food retail

Photo by Nathália Rosa on Unsplash

The grocery supply code of practice (GSCP) should be reformed to provide better protection to grocery suppliers in commercial contracts and require the grocery retailer to continuously improve performance on a number of environmental and food security aspects including food miles and Stock Keeping Unit complexity.

Why is this important?

We don't need our local grocery chain to offer us a choice of over 70 sausages or water shipped 853 miles from the French Alps, and we want our farmers to be treated fairly by their buyers.There is an imbalance in the food supply chain which the existing GSCP fails to address. This campaign seeks to redress the balance by creating a Grocery Retailer Assurance scheme (Red Shed) to compliment the existing Red Tractor Assurance scheme for suppliers. This means the retailer will have to not only comply with the GSCP but broader requirements including a commitment to continuously improve food miles and Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) complexity, thereby improving food production efficiency.