"Dear Consumers Campaign" today revealed the results of public policy assessment on environmental and consumer welfare responsibility at eight leading supermarkets in Thailand for the year 2020. The assessment results showed that although these supermarket operators have developed the policy in such areas, there is still a need for improvement especially in the issues which related to consumer complaint and remediation mechanism as well as back-of-house trading partners control measures to ensure environmental responsibility in their supply chains.

Ms. Jidapa Meepien, Private Sector Engagement at Oxfam in Thailand (Oxfam), said that "Dear Consumers" campaign, formerly known as "Dear Supermarkets", has been conducting a survey and assessing social responsibility policy in the supermarket business since the year 2018. The project is aimed at advocating retail operators to announce food sustainability policy and take serious action in implementing the guidelines.

For this year, Dear Consumer campaign has conducted a survey to assess environmental and consumer welfare responsibility at eight leading supermarkets in Thailand. The project does not only enhance food safety access for the consumer but also promotes environmental sustainability at the same time. The assessment covers three dimensions, including Consumer Welfare Responsibility, Trading Partner's Environmental Responsibility, and Retail Store's Environmental Responsibility. Each of these dimensions comprises eight indicators. The assessment, which is based on auditable policies published in their annual reports, websites, or other official statements, has been conducted from October 2019 to April 2020. According to the results, many supermarkets have announced and implemented these public policies. However, from the overall evaluation, there's still room for further improvement, particularly in these areas:

·       The development of consumer complaint and remediation mechanism which cover policies and guidelines on the complaint management, practices, time frame and compensation

·       The disclosure of information on product provenance and product selection process

·       The development of traceability mechanism, especially for fruit, vegetable, and seafood products

·       The implementation of strict measures to control manufacturers who do not follow food safety standards

·       The promotion of sustainable sourcing policy and related operational guidelines

Ms. Tatsanee Nanudorn, Office Manager of the Foundation for Consumers, said that based on the assesment results, supermarket operators scored less than 50% from the total score. Therefore, consumers need to jointly push these supermarkets to conduct clear and tangible environmental responsibility standards which can be implemented from upstream to downstream of their supply chains.

“Concrete steps that must be taken now include the development of consumer tools which allow them to track the provenance of products and components, a push towards supermarkets' implementation of traceability policy as well as the display of nutrition facts which include information about potential risks. Also, supermarkets should keep unsafe products off their store shelves and develop effective customer complaint and remediation system following the basic consumer rights.”

Ms. Prokchon Usap, Thai-PAN coordinator said that supermarket is recognised as a key player in the food supply chain. Therefore, operators should consider applying standards and policies to mornitor their trading partners to ensure ethical manufacturing and consumer safety in the supply chains. Considering the assesment results, there are six areas that all supermarkets failed to receive a score including pesticide and chemical usage, sustainability in the upstream ecosystem, traceability, energy management, water management, and greenhouse gas emissions, effluent and waste management. It reflects that most of the operators do not demonstrate clear environmental responsibility standards for their supply chains, especially in the areas which concern consumers who are also direct stakeholders. Therefore, it is vital to push these supermarket operators to take action implementing measures to monitor their trading partners and ensure food safety and food sustainability as supermarket's operational policies can have direct and indirect impacts on consumers.

This year’s assessment results showed that supermarket operators in Thailand are continually developing their public policies on environmental and consumer welfare responsibility. Hence, organization members of the affiliate network, together with Oxfam in Thailand, are expecting that these operators will gain higher scores in both dimensions in the future assessment.