FareShare agrees deal to redistribute food from Moroccan businesses in UK
FareShare has agreed a ground-breaking international partnership to redistribute food from Moroccan businesses trading with the UK.
The UK’s leading charity fighting hunger and food waste, FareShare, has made the agreement through the Moroccan Government’s Food Export Board, Morocco Foodex, which is promoting a new trade link with the UK.
Morocco is a big international exporter of citrus fruits, vegetables and fish. Its exports to the UK have grown by a third since Brexit, to more than 30,000 tonnes. Through the deal, Morocco will redistribute donations from its food suppliers via FareShare across the UK.
The agreement follows the opening of a new direct shipping route between Morocco and the UK, which will cut journey times by road from six days to less than three. Until now, trade between Morocco and the UK passed through Spain via road.
The food and drink has been donated to FareShare by companies including Atlas Olive Oil, Olea Capital, Cartier Saada and Mutandis.
The produce is scheduled to arrive at FareShare’s warehouse in Southampton later today (Wednesday 19th January) where it will be broken down into smaller quantities and redistributed through FareShare’s network of 10,500 charities across the UK.
The first delivery of produce destined for FareShare includes: <
936 litres of fruit juice
240 kilos of pasta
60 kilos of semolina
36 litres of extra virgin olive oil
28 kilos of green and black olives
Last year (2020-21) FareShare redistributed 55,000 tonnes of food through its 30 warehouses – the equivalent of more 132m meals.
More than 2 million tonnes of good-to-eat food is wasted across the UK food supply chain each year. Food becomes surplus for many reasons, including incorrect labelling, last minute changes in orders that are already dispatched and lower than anticipated demand.
Lindsay Boswell, FareShare CEO said:
“We are delighted to receive this food and drink from Morocco. Our 30 warehouses stand ready at short notice to receive good to eat nutritious food, from wherever it came from in the supply chain, and get it to people who need it, quickly, especially at this time of year.
“The priority is making sure food isn’t wasted but goes to people – which is the best thing to do socially, environmentally and economically with surplus food.
“We very much hope this will become a long-term agreement between the Moroccan government and FareShare – to received surplus food from this new trade link.”
The announcement comes off the back of Morocco Foodex’s three-month ‘From Morocco to UK’ campaign to promote the benefits of Moroccan food to UK businesses and consumers.
El Mehdi El Alami, director of promotion and development of Morocco Foodex said:
“It is a partnership of which we are very proud, and we thank all the partners who took part in this action including Atlas olive oil, Olea capital, Cartier Saada, Mutandis and AGTT for transportations.
“Through this initiative, we wish to show our friendship with the United Kingdom by letting as many people as possible taste our products, especially those in need in these difficult times.
“We have been touched by the actions carried out by FareShare and since the beginning of our campaign, we have worked to set up these food shipments.”
