For some reason, I really like to talk about food in this blog. Maybe its b/c I usually write this late at night when I’m getting the munchies. Anyway, this time, I want to talk about produce. Walmart’s produce area still has a lot of improving to do, but there is one recent change that is making me pretty excited…the focus on local. Over the last two years, under the leadership of a great merchant named Ron, our produce area has made a concerted effort to increase its purchasing of, and ability to purchase locally grown fresh produce. In fact, Ron’s team has committed to sourcing locally whenever possible.
To give you an idea how much they’ve focused on this, over the past two years, Walmart’s partnerships with local farmers have grown by 50 percent, and fruits and vegetables grown in any given store’s state now make up over a fifth of what’s available during summer months. Now, statistics like this are nice, but its particularly cool when you see the results…a few examples:
Until recently, all of the fresh cilantro sold in Walmart stores was sourced from California. Then, Ron’s merchants found a grower named Duda Farms, and soon we started sourcing cilantro from Belle Glade, Florida for distribution in the eastern US. Introducing Florida-grown cilantro resulted in an estimated savings of 250,000 food miles in a single season.
Additionally, Walmart has worked to optimize its sourcing of peaches. We source 12 million pounds of peaches from 18 different states; not just well-known growing areas like Georgia and South Carolina. By sourcing from so many different states and selling the product locally, Wal-Mart saved 672,000 food miles and 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Indeed, buying local can be a great thing for the planet.
There is one more reason this is a really cool thing. It’s great for the customer and the business. First, customers love the connection you feel and freshness you get from knowing that the tomato you are buying comes from a farmer in your state. Second, all those food mile savings add up to lower transportation costs that we can pass on to the customer and lower the price. For example, the total freight and gasoline savings from the peach example equal more than $1.4 million.
More to come…