Wal-Mart to Source More Produce Locally
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is sourcing more produce from local farmers for its supercenters and Neighborhood Markets to reduce skyrocketing transportation and fuel costs that are driving up food costs up, according to a Reuters report.
Over the past two years Wal-Mart has increased by 50 percent the number of local U.S. farmers with which it works, and said Tuesday it would like to continue to expand that growth at a double-digit rate.
Wal-Mart added that it works with "hundreds" of individual farmers, and this year it expects to source about $400 million in locally grown fruits and vegetables from farmers across the United States. The company declined to provide an exact figure for the number of local farmers it currently works with.
"When we're buying local, there are less trucks on the road, less miles that that produce is traveling and therefore less fuel," Pam Kohn, Wal-Mart's general merchandise manager for grocery, told Reuters. Wal-Mart said it defines "local" as buying from farmers in a state and selling the produce at stores in the same state, adding that about 20 percent of Wal-Mart's produce is currently sourced locally.
Soaring fuel costs are making it tough for the nations largest retailer and discounter o keep prices low. Wal-Mart said that in the United States, produce travels an average 1,500 miles from farms to consumers' homes, and it should be able to save millions of "food miles."
In an example, Wal-Mart said sourcing peaches in 18 states instead of just two, as it did before, saves 672,000 food miles and 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel -- or more than $1.4 million dollars in transportation costs per season.