tv Kulturzeit Deutsche Welle January 13, 2021 5:30am-6:00am CET
5:30 am
discomfort. subscribe to. documentary. and today is a very polarized world there are still some things we can safely say unite us like food we all have to eat but we're not only that simple who sells it and for how much is a deeply disputed topic when it comes to food can cheap be good our focus this week on made. now here's something i've heard
5:31 am
a 1000000 times but have trouble taking to heart you get what you pay for meaning the more you spend on something the better it will be but that doesn't stop me looking for a bargain and potentially regretting it later but some sellers will have you believe you don't have to compromise my county the german supermarket chain with thousands of stores all around the world my colleague chris down for save us went to find out how that could possibly be true. as one of the world's largest supermarket chains actually it's 2 chains and suit and they both pride themselves on that rock bottom prices and high quality product how does audi do it. it's 3 30 in the morning and all of compost is already at work he manages an hourly not distribution center as big as a football stadium. the company rarely lets t.v.
5:32 am
crews come to visit this is a rare exception. trucks will be loading here soon and everything has to go very fast it was the same yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening when the goods were assembled for distribution and we'll keep up the pace this morning to. front load his truck and sets off on the 1st of 3 round trips today his 1st stop is the closest store 20 kilometers away. there are more than $10000.00 of these around the world. and they all get daily deliveries that stock rooms are small on purpose in order to keep down costs. it's now 6 am store manager and father john 5 colleagues have to restock as much as a 3rd of the shelves. every morning the store opens in just one hour. i just
5:33 am
i like to go to the gym when i have time but working here is fun and i automatically get lots of exercise. the staff tell me they get paid more than the average for the sector but the audi chain has come under criticism for its employees heavy workload and long hours. huggies a heads operations for the region in germany the stores report more revenue per square meter shop space than any other discount or. also roast its own coffee. started very early in the company's history it was probably hard to convince suppliers to sell coffee to what was then called the. coffee it's a really fun so they decided to produce their own coffee coffee and that's been very successful. for some well known brands don't want to be seen to have their goods sold at super low prices at discount supermarkets. to get around the
5:34 am
problem he sells a brand named goods under its own labels. this is where the other story began in essence the 1st store its 2 founders opened is still known as number one. mother had already run her own small corner shop then in 1945 her 2 sons car until at last opened their 1st supermarket. this used to be the standard look unadorned pretty basic these 2 staff members met one of the brothers the pioneers of no frills grocery retailing. they just lay a balance on the floor and then lot more pallets with cans of tuna or pineapples or peaches or whatever was available on the market at that time of year. and they just piled them high. price labels cut open the front of the cardboard boxes and that
5:35 am
was that. and i wish i knew mr albert many many years ago he would do his shopping here every fortnight and he would always take the rejects the dented plans and that 1. 100 going on until the outbreak came along no retailer sold goods out of piles of cardboard boxes at super low prices with a tiny profit margin per item all that coupled with low overheads and high efficiency was a recipe for success. karl until i ran the together overseeing its rapid growth until 1961 then the brothers parted ways each setting up his own company to logos are very similar to you headed out of the not easy route 2 decades ago both companies started setting up shop in foreign markets between them they now have more than $10000.00 super markets around the
5:36 am
world. in recent years more attention has been paid to the design of the book is getting more sophisticated but that doesn't scare away the regulars. if i live nearby that's one reason and then there's the range of goods and the prices you pause or. some things i buy a house other things i wouldn't buy it. because time by most things out all day unless they don't have something. i want to find out more about the cost of the modernization program i'm invited to an off the record chat at the headquarters of the not in essence the privately held company never reveals much about it in a workings and doesn't give me any numbers. what is public knowledge is that in 2018 it posted an operating loss in germany for the very 1st time reportedly because of high investment costs. tribal leader has more branches the
5:37 am
competition and the pricing pressure are fierce. he is famous for its weekly special offers popular products at extra low prices but that's not at the heart of its strategy. we're market leaders when it comes to pricing because our customers always pay the best price on all our items so we will see. at the lowest possible price. rise of course other supermarkets and discount chains also customers with great prices in germany the hottest price was probably over meat pork or chicken can end up cheaper than common or garden vegetables is that compatible with humane animal husbandry concern shoppers can scan q.r. codes to find out more about the meat processing plants the farms and the livestock . we aim for transparency customer should know under
5:38 am
what conditions animals are bred. we require our suppliers to abide by all the relevant regulations and we check up on them. and. we have a law. corporate responsibility department does regular audits of our suppliers you can meet so you. know it's good. corporate responsibility appears to have become important to us. it says it receives. lots of questions from environmentalists. consumers are becoming more discerning and that's raising pressure on the retailer to show that it takes its responsibility seriously to ensure that cheap can also mean humane. play last year around 10000 farmers with 5000 tractors made their way from across germany to converge here in the center of berlin they came to protest the
5:39 am
government's new policies on the use of fertilizer now those regulations are meant to help protect the groundwater but german farmers say that will affect the harvest and they're furious our reporter karl went to see some of these farmers spoiler alert they're still angry. each of these combine harvesters cuts a 10 metre wide swathe through the fields of rapeseed for most of the year the expensive machines stand idle in the shed but during the harvest they're on the go almost all the time. trucks drive right onto the field to pick up the crop. that's efficient and saves time for the farmer. detail out for employees for people on his 900 hectare farm in eastern germany he may use high tech machinery but he does not accept the label industrial agriculture . or other reasons of i reject the idea of i'm the son of
5:40 am
a farmer and what we do nowadays is not industrial i don't think you can ever describe farming as an industrial interest i would call this modern agriculture a kind of solution but. once the crop is harvested fertilizer is spread on the field right away and another crop is planted. a regulation specifies how much fertilizer may be used so as to limit the amount of harmful nitrate in groundwater . in order to meet these requirements farmers have to use expensive measuring devices. the authorities check on compliance and penalties for violations can be severe. lover is angry about the fertilizer regulation he says it makes it harder for him to farm the way he thinks is right. and every year the amount he's allowed to use is
5:41 am
reduced. for dummett 3 let's see that means a lower yield. but then the following year the yield is even smaller. we don't defend that yield is the basis for calculate. the amount of nitrogen fertilizer for the year after that. i think it up at all minus 20 percent over and over again. it's like giving somebody 20 percent less food every year. people tend to go for dick if that's how it works our fields are slowly starving. at some point we'll have no yield at all. farmers in the european union receive subsidies from brussels deter love for his case that amounts to more than $200000.00 euros a year but it's a gift he says he'd rather not receive he says crops should command higher prices food is simply too cheap with that machine equipment is getting more and more
5:42 am
expensive as his diesel labor costs are rising as well of course that's a major factor in farming and we don't want to be left behind. while the rest of society earns more and more we farmers are less and less we're always being accused of demanding subsidies but we don't want them we want fair prices and that means at least 30 percent more for grain milk and pork then we could do without subsidies. of insulin if it's. teacher allow for his neighbor is also under pressure financially a new animal welfare law means he has to upgrade living conditions for his picks. to fund d.t.h. and his employee catarina who may keep the south who've given birth confined like this for 28 days so that they can't crush or otherwise injure their piglets. now each stall has to be enlarged that means there won't be room for as many cells
5:43 am
in total. detroit employs 2 people to look after the pigs now he'll probably have to let one of them go. as other people make it looks like we'll have to give up pig farming this shed was built for 185 sounds we now have 120 and i think they each have a decent amount of space but if we have to rebuild and reduce the number even further it won't be economically viable to what the following i can't do with just one employee what about weekends off and holidays i need at least 2 but i can't afford to pay too if we don't have enough sobs it just doesn't add up all together but it's so cut her greenhorn it is set to lose her jobs as situation adapts his operation to the new regulations on animal welfare. there's been lots of rain lately and deter loafers combine harvesters have to stop
5:44 am
earlier in the day. that's an annoyance for the farmer but what really makes him mad are all the regulations that he says are forcing him to change the way he farms water which are giving him a vitamin so far we've heard from the producers and sellers and on the other side of the equation there's us the consumers it's our business they want and supermarkets are willing to go to great lengths to get it undercutting each other in the process what we all have to ask ourselves is what are the consequences of these price wars. meat milk fruit and vege who has the lowest prices every cent cows competition is fierce among a handful of retail chains that dominate the global market. the world's biggest retailer is the american company wal-mart where the news this year are expected to
5:45 am
amount to around $470000000000.00 euros heavyweights among discount stores include germany's group which owns the legal and chains with estimated revenues this year of 120000000000 euros followed by algae with 100000000000. in order to sell their goods cheaply retailers often put producers under pressure if you don't give it to me for such and such a price you're out. it's not just discount stores that push down the prices they pay so they're more upmarket chains like and. if their suppliers won't sell to them for less they'll even kick out huge corporations such as nestle coca-cola and unilever. small farmers sometimes find their deliveries of fresh produce turned down agreed price is reduced retroactively or payments delayed by the retail chains tricks like these have brought farmers out onto the streets in protest. but the
5:46 am
retailers hit back they say there's no escaping fears international competition and in any case many shoppers can't afford to pay more for their purchases. if you ask consumers most say they would be willing to pay more for meat and milk but when it comes down to it the majority still choose the cheapest items. scandals over factory farming and exploitative working conditions on farms and in slaughterhouses have made cheap food a political issue. what's the answer break up the big retail chains have governments dictate prices. but that sounds like socialism. and action richter laws to protect workers animals and the environment that could raise prices. and equitable system of production and distribution is impossible given the pricing power of major retailers it's
5:47 am
a power struggle and the outcome is anybody's guess. if you are like me use all of oil in basically everything it's affordable it's meant to be healthy plus it's a key staple in the so-called mediterranean diet which apparently helps you live longer consumers love it but many of those who make the oil can't seem to make a living from it the world's biggest all of oil producer is but the all of all farmers say being at the top doesn't mean much in the face of shrinking profits one farmer and the new c.e.o. whose family has made all of oil for a century took it upon himself to take us production into the future. khan is passionate about growing olives his trees grow on 100 hectares of land some of them are over 100 years old. they don't start in with this olive grove. these trees were planted by my grandfather in the 1920 s. when you're very. since then he's restructured the olive groves so that he can live
5:48 am
from selling all of the oil he planted the trees closer together and started watering them which used to be unusual now me again this harvests a 1000000 kilos of all of the year between october and february but their value is going down he was 70 but if you know the price of olive oil has fallen a lot that our profit margin is so small that many olive groves are no longer profitable. at today's market prices a kilo of the finest spanish olive oil only fetches 2 euros in the country 4 years ago it would sell for twice that like almost all the all of growers in the area began used to send all of his all lives to one of the many cooperatives in the town of plenty. but with so many other farmers doing the same his own oil was getting lost in the mix which he found disheartening. and i decided to return to my roots
5:49 am
my grandfather pressed the oil himself and sold it directly that's what my family and i wanted to. pass 2 years ago they decided to market the oil themselves in nearby. miguel's brother take care of the business side julio posts ads on facebook and google at 1st they were only for the spanish market. and i had no idea about e-commerce i had no idea how to sell a product online. it was an adventure and a challenge but as a t. we managed to put this beautiful project together we wanted the. business is getting better and better they've employed 2 people to stay in direct contact with the customers at the beginning of the year they started discussing which new avenues they could take and decided they would expand into all of europe while
5:50 am
spain was in coronavirus lock down the warehouse in plant to fania was receiving more and more orders it was funny we just wondered what would happen if we started taking orders from abroad. and it was an even better outcome than any of them had expected getting it was unbelievable but i think i mean within 3 months 30 percent of our orders were coming from elsewhere in europe and in the book and have been especially from germany. money. the direct marketing worked out well but they're still not in control of all aspects miguel still stores his oil in the cooperatives tanks and he needs help extracting the oil from his all of us. still not completely independent from the cooperative we need help from them to press the olives we can't do that without them and we need help filling the bottles. but he hopes to soon be fully
5:51 am
independent miguel is already making more money than before the customers can buy quality all of oil directly from farmers in under luciana at a price that can compete with supermarket brands the new business model has already begun to bear fruit. and before we let you go it's confession time for me i. am terrible with plants so i won't likely ever to own any kind of weekend garden house or allotment but for many people these gardens are a source of pure pride and joy this week we handed our orloff krieger a pair of hedge trimmers and told him to go wild he may have taken it literally took one sec one sec just this is all has to be trimmed the allotment laws are
5:52 am
judge sauls for same sex fuck fuck fuck fuck. thank you my for my he gets away from my high chair yeah god is she. is how he's doing it all wrong i look. at the c.e.o.'s of i don't know what he thought but when you see if you're a much better ahead of them with that yeah it's just look carefully. you can find allotments all over the world and london paris moscow everywhere.
5:53 am
these are this one is 100 years code hours and you know $1000.00 and it's a pretty year so off them all. that's. true you know really lovely red cherries. sherry's. did. have some things off much shouldn't have. you know. this main struggle. but if i have to talk to eric out of the shop because of well this shouldn't be that.
5:54 am
much of a denounce and kill what you do with so many cherries and gooseberry send all the rest it's a lot eat it all. you really want to know yes of course. i make jam and they preserved. and i freeze stuff to eat in the winter this is do you know how good a storm it tastes in the winter. i can't imagine without or at that far as to get a with homegrown storm breeze and cherries. but my huts the most important thing i couldn't live without was i was. going to continue. we have always saw me cutting the hatch do you think i have talent saunderson talent yes really thank god really and if you want to do it even better i can show you how to.
5:55 am
be often been a son's eyes and i often walk past gardens like these and wondered what kind of people and they appeal to you feel strange and. yet sparse now i know it's just wonderful to get away from it all right from work at the office and it was. on the system from it's so relaxing. soon there will be pouncey this growing over that almost potatoes i plot. seems like olaf has a thing or 2 to learn about plants just like me maybe erica can teach us both to grow our own food that's all from this edition of made i hope you enjoy the show
5:57 am
5:58 am
residents can finally party again and who hunt china where things are almost back to normal it was from this city that the corona virus spread around the world. now it's considered defeated here china's crisis management seem to perform well. but the roic tale has many flaws and many losers global 3000 and. 90 minutes on d w. in the eye of climate change. for a cosmic see. what's in store for such good news to come for the future come the books. come for to make a series to get inside. counter.
5:59 am
passive drama competition viable marketing numbers atmosphere color fight at sap intuition love hate money. fan sometimes fan of spams and founds told to go off on you tube join us it's about billions. it's about power. it's about the foundation of the food order of the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network also in europe. china is promising its partners rich. but in europe there's a sharp morning whoever accept money from the new superpower will become dependent on it china's gateway to europe. starts feb 19th on d w. this
6:00 am
is news live from berlin donald trump says he's not responsible for last week's siege of the u.s. capitol and his 1st public appearance since the rioting he defends the speech he gave his orders that many say incited the violence also on the program after weeks of protests in india farmers win a battle in their war against new agricultural laws india's supreme.
19 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on