As you may already know, from time to time, I like to jump in the car and go visit our suppliers and their farms. Sometimes, I tour the processing facilities (abattoirs) also. This is something I have done from the very early days of Cannings. Without this due diligence, I could never be entirely certain of a supplier or where their values lie. Without that certainty, how could I be proud of what we sell? One of the things I find so rewarding about being in business is making (and meeting) the commitments I have made to my customers. Delivering on promise! In this particular example — it is my duty to leave no stone unturned in the quest for high welfare produce. We, at Cannings, demand honesty and transparency from our suppliers (in the form of our Cannings Supplier Declaration), and in turn, we're rewarded with the reassurance that we are working with the right producers. With this reassurance, comes our confidence in being able to promise honesty and transparency to our customers.

During the months of February, March and April, I visited Great Ocean Ducks (farm), Borrowdale Pork (farm and abattoir), Pooginagoric Free Range Turkey (farm and abattoir), Red Coral Seafood (factory) and Roaring Forties (farm and abattoir), and I can honestly say that all of these visits were such rewarding experiences and left me feeling very positive about our partnership choices. I also did videos from all of these locations, which are ready to view on our Vimeo page. Go check them out!!

With these most recent round of farm and processing facility visits, it brings the percentage of our suppliers farms visited up to 78% and the number of our suppliers committed to the Cannings Supplier Declaration up to 98%. The shortfalls here consist of farms or suppliers that are much further away and harder to get to. I will always be working towards closing this small gap so please keep an eye on these two metrics, here. If you'd like to know more about the Cannings Supplier Declaration (CSD) please visit my BLOG post about Cannings Mission.