Free 1st class cauliflower to combat waste

Food waste is a prominent theme these days, mostly concerning actions that work against the wasting of "fruit and vegetables with a cosmetic fault", like wrinkled tomatoes, curved cucumbers and baby plums. Yesterday, however, there were 1st class cauliflowers available for free in various places across the Netherlands to prevent wast, as the vegetable isn't popular among consumers at the moment, which is causing an oversupply. This changes when they're free, however. Various grocers offered their customers a free cauliflower when spending a small amount in the store. "It's going very well. I had one or two people who refused a cauliflower because they don't like them," says Casper Reijnders of Uw Groenteman Casper Reijnders.

He announced the offer the day before on Facebook: "Prevent food waste. When spending 2.50 Euro, receive a free cauliflower." It quickly worked. "I don't tend to open the doors of my store until around 8.30 am, but today there was a customer waiting by 8.15 am. I also saw a lot of new customers in store today," says Casper. "The free snacking tomatoes worked well last week too. But these aren't products that have something 'wrong' with them. They're beautiful cauliflowers, it's a shame really to give them away for free." But vegetables aren't popular at the moment. The 2.50 Euro spent by customers in Reijnders' store isn't spend on vegetables. "No one wants to cook when it's as warm as this and the customers opt for convenience. I have 20 varieties of salads which are very popular at the moment. Other than this customers mainly buy fruit, melons, grapes, nectarines and the like."

Roy Klasens of KLasens, Uw grocer, also gave away free cauliflower, upon spending an even smaller amount of money, just 1 Euro. "The customers are very enthusiastic and few refuse cauliflower," he says. At around 2 pm not all of the cauliflower has been given away, but Roy expects this to happen later today or tomorrow. Despite the heat he believes his customers will eat the cauliflower cooked. Many customers buy peeled potatoes with them, and often take a salad too, says the grocer.

The free cauliflowers are an initiative by wholesaler Willem Dijk AGF for their Dutch and German customers. "Our motivation is to prevent food waste. The newspapers these days are full of plums that are too small, wrinkled snacking tomatoes and curved cucumbers. There is nothing wrong with these cauliflowers, but growers are stuck with an oversupply because consumers still think you have to cook cauliflower and it's not the right weather for it with these temperatures. 

Part often also goes to Eastern Europe. At the moment the holidays are in full swing there and the sales have stagnated. We therefore bought a large party of Noord-Holland cauliflower and our customers, the vegetable specialists, contribute a Europ per colli for the transport costs. Many customers participated, and at least 73 pallets left. We are doing the same offer for tomatoes and another for peppers," says Ronnie Moorman of Willem Dijk AGF. The weather conditions are expected to change, after which the trade should hopefully normalise again. "However, I expect the story to continue, particularly with open ground vegetables. They can't plant anything in Southern Europe at the moment, which will have consequences during the switch to the import season."

For more information:

Ronnie Moorman
De Ossenboer 2
7547 SJ Enschede
T: 0031 (0) 53 486 47 50
M: 0031 (0) 6 1515 01 76
willemjr@willemdijk.nl
www.willemdijk.nl

Rijnstraat 64c
Enschede
T: 0031 (0) 53 435 5391

Rijssensestraat 2

Wierden

T: 0031 (0) 546 570 804