Business as usual for local supplier

THE air shutdown which has led to a scarcity of some items on some supermarket shelves has highlighted the unsustainable nature of the country’s food supply, according to award-winning Warrington vegbox company Riverford Organic.
“It seems mad that we should rely on air freight to get food onto our plates and this chaos shows just how unsustainable the food distribution chain is,” says Alan McInnes, who delivers Riverford vegboxes to local families in Warrington.
“We have a policy of never air freighting so the shutdown didn’t affect availability for our customers.
“We can grow so much in this country, with veg like purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, spring onions, leeks and rhubarb in season right now. It just doesn’t make sense that we should fly in baby sweetcorn and pineapple chunks from around the world to feed ourselves.” added Alan (pictured) “We work closely with some growers overseas who provide us with things like bananas and oranges that don’t grow here, and because we import the produce by sea, our growers won’t be vulnerable to the current problems.”
Consumers who found supermarket shelves a little bare should consider a local vegbox scheme, suggests Alan. “If you’re not green-fingered yourself, now is a good opportunity to find a local vegbox scheme that grows its own instead. With beautiful UK asparagus just coming into season, will you really miss baby sweetcorn anyway?”
Riverford has never air freighted any produce and works with overseas growers over the long-term to protect them from the vulnerabilities of the global distribution chain.
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