Feedback have teamed up with Farming Online to put out a survey about food waste on horticultural farms. If you’re a producer of fruit and vegetables, we want to hear your views on the edible produce you grow but cannot sell. Have your say - Take the survey.

We’ve already begun to see responses coming in, and so far, the results have led to two striking conclusions. The first is that horticultural farmers are experiencing very high levels of food that is edible but they cannot sell to human consumption on their farms (an average of 11-27% of their crop), though this varies considerably from farm to farm. The second is that retailers are overwhelmingly perceived as having a strong role in causing this food waste, whether it be through (sometimes disguised) order cancellations, incentivising overproduction, or educating consumers to be fussy over the size and shape of their food.

These vital findings will help Feedback campaign to change retailer’s policies which cause food waste on farms, and raise public awareness on the issue to give a platform for farmers’ concerns. The more responses we have to the survey the stronger our case will be, and the more accurately we’ll be able to represent the views of the farming community. Whether you agree or disagree with the results so far, we want to hear from you!

The headline results so far:

Respondents who gave estimates of their tonnages grown grew between them a total of 195,865 tonnes of fresh produce per year. As a weighted average, a colossal 11-18% of their crop was wasted on typical years, and 15-27% on extreme years, equal to between 21,296 and 52,219 tonnes a year.

Cosmetic outgrading for the farms surveyed ranged from 0-40%. The most popular identified cause of this was “consumers are fussy over appearance”, with about 4/5ths believing this is driven primarily by retailers and only 1/5 believing this is primarily driven by consumers. The next most common cause identified was “retailers use cosmetic standards as an excuse to reject produce when they can get a lower price elsewhere or their demand has fallen”, and then “supermarkets taking over a larger share of the UK retail market from wholesale markets and grocers has led to less outlets for lower grade”.

Respondents viewed the biggest cause of supply and demand issues affecting waste as: “overproduction leads to greater price volatility”, “weather produces gluts leading to price collapse”, “industry concentration in retail has led to less outlets for surplus produce, like traditional grocers and markets” and “differences between buyers’ forecasts and confirmed orders, like last-minute order cancellations, make it difficult to find alternative buyers for produce before it deteriorates”.

In a list of statements, the most agreed with were “Farmers overproduce because there is pressure to always meet buyer orders, or risk losing contracts. It is difficult to find outlets for the surplus” and “Generally low farm-gate prices increase the risk of it not being cost-effective to harvest produce”. The most disagreed with were that “Costs incurred from on-farm wastage and returned produce, which arise from order forecasting errors, are compensated by the buyer” and “Buyers work closely with us to reduce wastage and improve efficiency”.

To make your voice heard on food waste, you can take the survey here.