/ Interview with Mr. Philippe Palazzi, Member of the Board at METRO Cash & Carry

Philippe Palazzi is Operating Partner, responsible for the countries France, Spain and Portugal, and Member of the Board at METRO Cash & Carry.  In his function as Chief Marketing Officer, he is also in charge of developing METRO ́s core customer target group HoReCa on a global level. METRO Cash & Carry is operating in 25 countries and is the partner for independent businesses. 1) What are METRO’s priorities with regard to the EU food policy agenda? We are closely following and taking part in the major regulatory developments in the EU arena. The implementation of the Food Information to Consumers Regulation (FIR) remains a challenge, in particular with regards to the ongoing discussions on several implementing measures (precautionary allergen labelling ("may contain”), nutrition labelling for alcoholic beverages, transfatty acids, etc.) and open interpretation questions of the legal text. We equally closely monitor the issue of origin labelling of primary ingredients as well as the discussions of the need for origin labelling rules for processed products, such as dairy and meat products. The overarching issue of traceability is high on our agenda. It plays a major role in many aspects, i.e. hygiene, responsibilities in ever more complex global food chains and above all the fight against food fraud. METRO understands that buying food is a matter of trust. We believe that our innovative traceability solution PRO TRACE adds value for our customers and their customers by giving transparency about our products. Besides the expectations for transparency throughout the supply chain and the essential food safety, the attributes quality, authenticity and the taste of the products are major criteria for the customer. We implement those expectations into our daily business and continue to improve through innovations. By tracing the product you have access to a variety of interesting and useful information provided by the farmer, fisherman and manufacturer. 2) Could you tell us more about METRO’s actions towards the reduction of food waste and food losses and how METRO and HOTREC could work together on it? Reducing food waste and food loss is one of METRO’s key challenges. We take a holistic approach throughout all stages along the value chain. Due to our extended responsibility towards our B2B customers, we’re also active at the end of the value chain when it comes to raising transparency and awareness. For our professional METRO customers from the hospitality sector we have developed "doggy bags” in France and Italy. In Italy we have cooperated with the World Food Programme (WFP) to this regard and the action was extremely well received by our professional customers. The majority of our customers are SMEs. Therefore METRO and HOTREC share the common interest to keep the administrative burden on measuring food waste reduction as low as possible while supporting the overall idea. And after all we also have to see the topic from an economic point of view – which most likely unites us with our customers in the hospitality sector: Our common core business is selling food, not wasting it. To do this in a more efficient way increases productivity and reduces costs as well. 3) How does METRO deal with the European Commission’s approach to food product improvement and healthier nutritional habits? The hospitality sector plays an important role in improving the nutritional habits of the society and at the same time we see that our HoReCa customers have to react to the growing demand on behalf of their customers when it comes to healthy diet. We support our customers in reacting to these demands, as well as in taking on the educational role and promoting healthy lifestyle by providing them with relevant and reliable assortment. We seek to achieve that by reviewing our product portfolio regularly and by developing product innovations, e.g. product reformulation. Offering our customers products of reliable quality and safety on a daily basis and having sound social and environmental credentials is essential and the prerequisite for our business. When it comes to the question of healthier food products METRO is proud to be particularly strong in offering ultra-fresh fruit and vegetables as well as meat and fish, particularly for the hotels, restaurants and chefs’. Healthier food also equals to know the product by heart, to know where it´s coming from and to have a transparent supply chain. METRO is proud to not only offer fresh and high quality fish but additionally a consistent traceability back to the origin. Concerning possible European Commission ideas we are strongly convinced, that politics should support the business of our customers and make their life easier – not increasingly bureaucratic and burdensome when it comes to labelling and information demands but find pragmatic, doable and business-focused solutions.