Russia

Russia’s sunny south is characterised by fruit and vegetable cultivation. There is high demand for regional apples, berries and plums as well as lettuce, cucumbers and onions. Until recently, however, METRO Cash & Carry Russia had a difficult time offering these products in good quality and at a reasonable price to its nine stores in southern Russia. Due to a lack of local logistical infrastructure, the goods had to travel through the central distribution centre in Moscow – a distance of up to 2,000 kilometres that not only affected costs but also impacted the freshness of the produce. Hence, the availability of local goods in the METRO Cash & Carry stores in southern Russia was limited. But this abruptly changed in August 2013 with the opening of a new logistical platform in Aksay. Here, in a space of around 700 square metres, orders are taken for more than 100 different kinds of fruits and vegetables, which are then distributed to the nine stores. This now enables many more regional fruit and vegetable suppliers to provide goods to the METRO Cash & Carry stores. And thanks to the substantially shorter delivery routes, the costs for logistics were drastically reduced. This allows the stores to offer their customers more fresh fruit and vegetables from the region at reasonable prices – a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Short distances for fruit and vegetables: at a glance