What’s the issue? Insects, including bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles and hoverflies, pollinate about 80% of all plant species in Europe, including most fruits, many vegetables and some oilseed crops. We are not totally reliant on insect pollinators. Such staple crops as wheat, rice and corn are either wind or self-pollinated. However, insect pollinated crops do provide us with vit...

What’s the issue? The banking system underpins all commercial activity by creating, storing and transferring money. Any failure in the system therefore can cause the destruction of wealth and erosion of confidence. A particularly severe collapse, although unlikely, could undermine the trading system that underpins the food chain. Possible shocks that might precipitate a problem in the b...

What’s the issue? In this context, “speculation” refers mainly to the involvement of outside (non-food-business) interests in the trading of food commodities, especially through the use of future contracts. These are similar to forward-purchase contracts except that a future is a financial asset that can only be traded on an exchange whereas a forward contract is a private arrangement betw...

What’s the issue? Most countries, even those that are more than self-sufficient in food, rely on trade for some components of the diet. The UK sources about one-third of all agricultural goods from overseas and even for items that can be produced domestically, the proportion is about one-quarter 1 . Some items (eg: fruit) are sourced almost entirely from overseas and overall food self-suff...

The case study in a nutshell Tesco and Coca-Cola Enterprises mid-management 12 month job swap Six months from initial idea to launch Accommodated within existing headcount Objectives included: Taking the client relationship to the next level of collaboration Op...

In 2012 Tesco and Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE) embarked on an innovative 'job swap' programme designed to broaden the knowledge and skills of their team members, providing them with firsthand experience of the supply chain either further up or down stream. The job swap programme provides a unique opportunity for participants to develop new skills and new ways of dealing with issues and challen...

Global diets are changing.  Sugar, oils, dairy, and animal product consumption are increasing in almost all regions of the world - yet people in low- and middle-income countries still consume far less meat and dairy than those in high-income countries. The demand for food is expected to continue to grow as a result both of population growth and rising incomes.  According to the UN's Food an...

When it comes to waste, we believe prevention or redistribution is better than recycling...and any of these three options is better than disposal to landfill. Less waste means less impact on the environment, which is good for everyone. IGD has been leading a working group of senior people from the industry to find ways to prevent more waste and so far 34 leading companies have prevented 125,00...

Vanessa Henry, shopper insight manager, explains how loyalty schemes and innovative reward technology are shaping the way shoppers choose between stores... If you’re a grocery shopper, there’s a strong possibility your wallet contains a loyalty card or two. Now that I’m shopping around more, like lots of other shoppers, I’ve got a couple to my name. We’ve found that loy...

IGD’s Feeding Britain’s Future initiative pledges 12,000 training places for young unemployed Businesses set to take part at 1,000 locations across the UK  Minister for Business and Education and industry leaders call on more employers to sign up at skills event today in Westminster 10 July 2013 Over 100 businesses from across the food and grocery sector have already pledged suppo...