Eosta manager Volkert Engelsman has had enough. Supermarket chain Albert Heijn is behind the times, according to him, and sees transparency as ‘something life-threatening.’ The largest Dutch trader of organic fruit and vegetables is of the opinion that the liability principle has been lost. According to him, levies in the form of a tax on fertiliser or pesticides would create a more even playing field on the market. He also indicates that the prices received by cultivators for their products and the prices end-consumers pay, are far from realistic. The following was reported in the Financiële Dagblad, a Dutch newspaper.
“Eosta pays its cultivators a reasonable amount, whereas many supermarkets do not. They shift health and environment costs onto society by doing so. Academics speak of ‘a fault in the system,’ but I think it is criminal,” Engelsman let slip to the newspaper.