Direct market-ing

Supplier rationalisation, according to 52 per cent of respondents to a recent freshinfo.com poll, will have the biggest effect on the industry in 2004. It has inarguably already had a major impact on countless companies at all levels of the supply chain. Some of those affected have taken matters into their own hands and forsaken the large volume customers for a more direct route to the consumer - farmers’ markets. Tommy Leighton talks to Cheryl Cohen of London Farmers’ Markets, and producer Peter Clarke, whose P&J Clarke has chosen to channel 80 per cent of its fruit and vegetables through this part of the system.