海角大神

This is a guest article by Jordan聽Figueiredo,听a zero-waste professional and food waste activist from California, United States.

If I told you that you could buy healthy, nutritious produce that looked a little different for 30 to 60 percent off the cost of regular produce, would you be interested? Or if you were a grocer and you could raise store traffic and sales and reduce food waste by selling different鈥攕ome say ugly鈥攑roduce, would you be interested? Worldwide, both consumers and grocers are saying a loud yes to 鈥渦gly鈥� produce. Yet, the economic giant that is the United States has not seen any grocers bite. So, as the business case for ugly fruit and veg keeps building, will U.S. grocers grab this low-hanging fruit, or will they leave it to rot in the land of plenty?

Globally we have a substantial wasted produce problem;聽goes uneaten, mostly because it does not meet strict grocer cosmetic standards for size, shape, or color. At the same time,听鈥攁nd certainly in need of more affordable, nutritious produce. What if the solution to these issues was staring us right in the face? Could ugly produce sales be the key?

Environmental and health reasons aside, there is a business case for selling ugly produce. And, in 2014, French supermarket聽聽put these 鈥渋nglorious鈥� fruits and vegetables on a global stage with highly popular and creative marketing campaign that included an attention-getting聽. As a result, 滨苍迟别谤尘补谤肠丑茅 raised store traffic 24 percent, and completely sold out of misshapen produce. Then, five French chains followed suit with their own campaigns, as did many others all around Europe.聽,听,,听, and聽聽all found striking success in ugly produce. Large grocers in U.S., however, decided to stay on the sidelines.

Then, early on this year, Australian grocery giant Woolworths (鈥淲oolies鈥� to locals) inaugurated a similar fun, character-based ugly produce campaign called the聽. The campaign was a聽, with 3.6 million kilos of produce sold at a discount, resulting in a 40 percent increase in incremental sales.

Perhaps what U.S. grocers need is some star power to grab ugly fruit and veg from its wasted fate. In January 2015, chef, author, and TV personality Jamie Oliver promoted Asda鈥檚 鈥淏eautiful on the Inside鈥� line, 聽and consumers proudly聽聽their 鈥渨onky veg鈥� photos and stories on social media. While some U.K. stores such as聽,, and聽聽had been quietly selling weather-blemished produce for some time, the Asda campaign made a big splash. Shortly after, Oliver even聽聽for Woolies鈥� Odd Bunch.

Late in 2014, North America saw its first corporation-marketed ugly produce. Alberta, Canada, Safeway stores, in partnership with Red Hat Co-operative Ltd., promoted the misshapen goods with a lovable聽; produce starred in 鈥淭he Misfits: Rise of the Rejects鈥� blockbuster-themed advertisements. Safeway offered the imperfect fruit and veg at a 30 percent discount, and the program was聽.

According to Betty Kellsey, public affairs manager at Safeway, the success of the Misfits has the grocery powerhouse currently planning this year鈥檚 rollout of misshapen produce. If U.S. grocers worry that demand for more expensive 鈥渞egulars鈥� would decline, Kellsey said Safeway鈥檚 customers consistently purchased both grades of produce.

In March, Canada鈥檚 uglies expanded east when grocery giant Loblaw debuted its聽聽line at its No Frills, Real Canadian, and Maxi chains in Ontario and Quebec. While it鈥檚 only been a few weeks, Dan Branson, Senior Director of Produce at Loblaws told me that they believe the program has been a success.

Despite global success (even in North America), large U.S. grocers refuse to participate in the trend, while ugly fruit and veg continues to captivate the world with low prices and charming aesthetics.

You can take action to 鈥渁sk for ugly鈥� in the U.S. by sharing this article, and by supporting my聽聽Twitter campaign. It has almost 10,000 followers who retweet and favorite posts hundreds of times daily. The campaign has received an outpouring of聽and food-leader聽聽and can be found on聽,听, and the聽聽too. So please, support @UglyFruitAndVeg, because all produce deserves to loved and eaten, not wasted!聽