France’s leading consumer organisation (stay with me here), Que Chosir Ensemble, has released a study that exposes some interesting issues about who profits in the veggie and fruit marketing arena.
As HB struggles with the viability of parts of its horticulture sector, the same issues and questions probably apply.
Under the supervision of the French Ministry of Agriculture, Que Choisir Ensemble calculated the gross margins of supermarkets on a basket of 24 fruit and vegetables (11 fruit and 13 vegetables representing 70% of national consumption), by comparing conventional and organic prices over the whole of 2025.
What they found was that on average the margin on organic fruit and veggies was 81% higher than on conventional.
So someone was making a heap more francs … but who?
Looking at the two highest consumption examples, they found …
Organic tomatoes: the farm-gate price was only 44% higher than conventional prices, but the distribution margin was 113% higher. So with a 73% higher cost to the consumer, only 27% of that went to the farmer.
And with organic apples, the gross margin for retailers was double that for conventional apples. The organic farmer only recovered 37% of the higher price.
The study covers everything from leeks to strawberries, with the same pattern in every case.
Compared to the average French household’s annual budget for conventional fruit and vegetables, the comparable cost for an organic ‘basket’ was 60% more, with the organic farmers recouping 38% of the extra cost. The supermarkets got 57% of the extra cost.
For what, asks Que Choisir Ensemble, who is willing to grant higher production costs to growing, but cannot find “any convincing justification” for the supermarkets’ mark-up.
As Hawke’s Bay looks for food production security, our point is noting this study is not so much about the conventional versus organic disparity (objectionable as that is), but rather about what the study underscores in terms of who actually controls food pricing … it ain’t the farmer, who is a hapless price taker!
