UK supermarkets will block GM foods
Customer is king says BRC
June 8 2003
UK supermarkets will not stock genetically modified foods for the simple reason that customers will not buy them.
The British Retail Consortium has made the industry’s position clear in a letter to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Food Standards Agency.
The stance has the potential to embarrass the government, which has been lobbied intensively by producers of GM foods.
The British Retail Consortium argues that consumer concern about the GM industry will be the ultimate decider of supermarket policies, rather than government approval for GM products.
David Southwell of the BRC told the Observer newspaper: “The customer is where the real power lies. Supermarkets are not going to give shelf space to something that doesn’t sell.” A Sainsbury’s spokesman also said the supermarket giant had no choice as long as customers made it clear they did not want GM produce.
