Highlight Ingredients for Success in Turbulent times

Some 660 CEOs and senior managers from the world's top food and consumer goods retailers and manufacturers convened at the 53rd World Food Business Summit in New York last month (June).

Speakers were charged with delivering “ingredients for success in turbulent times”.

Gareth Ackerman, chairman of the World Food Business Summit and chairman of South African retailer Pick ’n Pay Holdings, said the industry’s focus had to be on the consumer at a time when shoppers all over the world are under pressure.

“The years of excess and good times have faded and left a residue of disquiet, economic and political change,” he said. “As players in the industry, we must guard against our primary role being denuded: our role is to look after the interests of the consumer. We can never take that trust relationship for granted.”

Ackerman urged delegates to do all they can to enhance that trust and said industry collaboration should focus on consumer benefits to result in lower cost and a safer, more sustainable food chain.

Food security is achievable, according to Professor Robert Watson, chief scientific advisor for the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Not only will the demand for food double within the next 25-50 years, primarily in developing countries, but also, the types of food demanded will change, he said.

“We need sustained growth in the agricultural sector, to feed the world, enhance rural livelihoods and stimulate economic growth.”

Watson reported crop yields are projected to decrease by as much as 20% by 2020, due to changes in climate: the rising of surface temperature and the withdrawal of water. Climate change will also likely increase the spread of animal diseases, including those that can commute from animals to humans.

Watson said the challenges are to produce, region by region, the diverse array of crops, livestock, fish, forests, biomass and commodities needed over the next 50 years, in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.

Pierre Olivier Beckers, CEO of Belgian international retailer Delhaize Group, said innovation was key in the current climate.

“The current crisis is not one that we should approach with stiff backs and fears,” he said. “Every survival kit should include a sense of humour because humour is fearless.

“The financial crisis will punish those who refuse to adapt. If you can keep your humour and your optimism and summon original and fearless thought, then you have already won half the battle.”

Supervalu chairman Steven Burd reported retailers, manufacturers and drug companies are teaming up to lobby for healthcare reform in the US, where the cost of healthcare is increasing as a percentage of GDP and 15% of the population has no healthcare insurance.

“Insurance should be universal,” said Burd, “but if individuals were obliged to pay the full cost for unhealthy behaviour they would be motivated to change.”

Burd said healthcare plans should include differential premiums and thus incorporate incentives for healthy behaviour. He projects this would achieve healthcare cost savings of $800bn.