The background behind Natoora Professional

The troubles caused by the dominance of a small number of large supermarkets in the retail grocery sector in the UK have been well documented, but seem a strange starting point for the story behind our wholesale service, Natoora Professional.

Yet, the size of the supermarkets' share of the retail grocery sector (over 75% in 2010), and their ever growing dominance of the fruit and vegetables sector (from 33% in 1989 to 87% in 2010, none of which is bought through the wholesale markets) has had an unavoidable impact on the way that fruits and vegetables are bought and sold in the UK.

When people talk about supermarket power, more often than not, it is with the fruit and vegetables sector in mind where, as in most of their dealings, the supermarkets have circumvented the traditional wholesale markets and tended to trade directly with the growers. This can be good business for growers of out-of-season produce or for large volume growers that can afford to meet the demands of supermarkets (and, it should be said, their customers) for seasonal items, such as asparagus, all year round, or for blemish free fruits and vegetables.

However, this discourages the growing of native varieties of, say, apples which may be more delicate or less aesthetically pleasing than others, whilst encouraging the mass producing of single varieties, and begins to explain the much quoted example of apples from New Zealand being found on the shelves during the height of the British apple season.

The flip side of this is an increasingly small wholesale market which has created a difficult environment for small scale producers who are unwilling to deal with supermarkets, and particularly growers of non-supermarkets varieties who are unable to. With supermarkets also importing directly from producers abroad, this inevitably has meant that the variety of fruits and vegetables available on the UK wholesale market has declined.

Against this background, and almost in parallel, the restaurant culture in the UK, and London particularly, has become increasingly sophisticated and diverse. Unsurprisingly one of the most common complaints of chefs, particularly foreign or with experience abroad, has been the difficulty in getting hold of, and particularly the quality of the fruits and vegetables available on the market . This is where Natoora Professional comes in...

Our range

Want to know more?