Precise figures are hard to come by but, according to one survey in 2018, 7.4% of U.K. You’re literally throwing money into the ground.” “There is so much landfill produced by farmers getting rid of food that just won’t sell because of supermarkets’ standards,” she said. What Starkey finds especially galling is the waste that stringent supermarket demands have entailed. It’s just the wrong size, shape or weight for supermarket packaging. Much of what she’s selling has no visible defect. “These pears, blemished. Parsnips - this one is thin and knobbly. As you can see, there are varying sizes of leek in this box. “Battered carrots, twisted carrots,” Starkey said as she pointed out some of the produce in one of her boxes. Everyone’s feeling the pinch.”īusiness is brisk for Starkey and her husband and their small firm called Wonky Veg Boxes, which delivers to the doorstep boxes of the kind of fruit and vegetables that supermarkets have automatically rejected. And everyone’s trying to look after the pennies at the moment. It can be about half the price of cosmetically appealing produce. “Cost of living crisis, pure and simple,” she said. The reason, said Hollie Starkey, who’s a wonky veg retailer based near the English Midlands city of Leicester, is fairly obvious.
Sales of imperfect produce are soaring in the U.K. - up almost 20% over the past year - and almost 5 million Brits now buy it regularly. And it’s fine.” “Wonky veg is cheaper, and everyone is trying to look after the pennies at the moment,” said Hollie Starkey, co-owner of Wonky Veg Boxes. Rebecca Rainsford added: “I buy it, I’m happy to do so, because it’s cheaper. “The quality is just as good as regular produce“ said Paul Freeman. It’s a good deal,“ said Derek Keen, one of a number of shoppers outside a supermarket in a small town west of London. But, in the current cost of living crisis, the old aversion appears to be waning, and wonky fruit and vegetables seem to be gaining more and more appeal. Historically, supermarkets in the United Kingdom have rejected any produce that is bent, blistered, discolored, distorted, irregular in any other way, or not visually pleasing. The population is already facing the biggest rise in taxation since the Second World War and the steepest fall in living standards on record. But the sharp increase in food prices has had one benign effect: It’s boosted a curious corner of the fresh produce market - ugly fruit and vegetables.
at their fastest rate in more than 45 years - 16.4% a year, according to the latest set of figures - and that is putting British household budgets under extraordinary additional pressure.
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