YOUR INDUSTRY
SUPIE SPRINGS TO LIFE Words by Glenys Christian
Supie founder, Sarah Balle, wants to cut food wastage by reducing the number of steps from producer to consumer
Sarah Balle grew up on a Pukekohe vegetable farm and saw for herself the increasing wastage involved in getting produce to consumers. So two years ago she decided to focus full-time on setting up Supie, an online supermarket aiming to cut waste by linking producers and consumers more closely. It was launched in Auckland in May, with plans to roll it out progressively to the rest of the country as demand grows. “I’ve been around the industry my entire life, so quality healthy and affordable food has always been a passion of mine,” she says. While Sarah trained and worked as an accountant, she’s had exposure to the family business Balle Brothers, throughout her life, as her father, Kevin, is one of the seven brothers. Her siblings have now all ventured out into their own vegetable growing enterprises. “Predictably I spent school holidays as I was growing up in the paddocks, clipping and bagging onions, of which I still have fond memories.” She was determined to make buying and selling food in New Zealand fair and transparent by reducing the middlemen, giving consumers a better way to shop for
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food online. And her solution she believes will help reduce food waste and the impact it has on the environment along with helping to tackle food poverty. The idea of Supie came from a growing frustration at seeing first-hand how much food was wasted as a large amount of growers’ produce didn’t reach the exacting standards of supermarkets, as well as seeing the small margins growers achieved. “Year after year nothing was being done,” she says. There’s an estimated 14 million kilograms of food waste in New Zealand annually, and with half of that coming from fruit and vegetables that means $1 billion worth is being thrown away. The carbon emissions created from dumping it in landfill would take an estimated 150,000 cars being removed from our roads to offset. And it is believed 170,000 New Zealand children are currently living in food poverty. Sarah says that to truly make an impact and change for good, Supie wanted to flip the traditional supermarket model on its head. “To do this, from day one our focus is entirely on our partners and customers.”
