World Union of Wholesale Markets
The World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM) is a non-profit association that is involved in all areas that aim to promote and develop wholesale markets and food markets (weekly markets, etc.) as well as the corresponding exchange of experience and knowledge transfer.
The organization, based in The Hague, informs the public and authorities about the role and activities of the traditional food market segment and enables the exchange of specialist knowledge and know-how .
The association maintains contacts with other relevant market associations and government agencies at international, national and local level and bundles the entire range of specialist knowledge of its members. As a result, the WUWM is in a position to provide authorities and organizations that are responsible for the establishment and management of wholesale , retail and weekly markets in the food industry with advice and experience with regard to the grocery business and the challenges associated with it, as well as the markets in to support the producing countries or directly at the place of origin.
Through active cooperation, the association supports the relevant food initiatives and projects of international organizations such as B. the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and ensures that national decision-makers have access to an expert platform that provides them with detailed market knowledge and information.
Currently important topics for the association include waste management ; Food safety and the supply of fresh produce and the associated challenges for logistics and marketing; Enlargement of the European Union and EU directives; fair trade ; demonstrating and researching the socio-economic benefits of food markets; Optimization of efficiency and profitability as well as future development opportunities for food markets.
In order to promote the exchange of knowledge, the association organizes regular conferences and specialist meetings. In addition, data on wholesale and retail markets in various countries and economic regions are collected and stored. The Union seeks to engage in dialogue with other food industry specialists and expert bodies, acting as a point of contact for marketers, producers, wholesalers and suppliers, and being the leading international platform for debates on fresh food market issues.
Until 2003, the Union, founded in 1958, was an organization affiliated with the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA); since 2003 it has been an independent association.
The association currently has around 200 members in 44 countries. The advantages of membership include: a stronger profile, access to information, exchange of experiences and networking.
Board of Directors and Secretariat
The management bodies are the general assembly and the board of directors. The board consists of a chairman, a deputy chairman and the board members. Including the chairman of the board and his deputy, a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 13 people belong to the board.
The members entitled to vote elect the board members from among their number; is elected every year at the members' annual meeting. Around half of the board of directors is regularly elected or re-elected for a term of two years. As far as possible, the composition of the board reflects the main topics and regions represented in the membership of the WUWM.
The General Secretary fulfills her accountability to the members by reporting to the Board of Directors and its Chairperson.
history
The association first appeared in 1958 as an international platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between wholesale market authorities and food experts. This was a consequence of the first international congress, which took place in Munich in 1955 , when representatives of European local authorities came together to discuss the issues of food supply and the market at the time and to work out possible solutions.
Initially, the association was founded as a working group within the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), but quickly developed into a large network of food experts that already had members outside of Europe in the early 1980s. By collecting information and organizing conferences and specialist meetings, the WUWM was strengthened and its efficiency increased. The association was soon able to bundle the specialist knowledge of its members in such a way that it could advise and support both individual members and the authorities responsible for setting up and managing wholesale markets.
The new statutes, which were approved in 2001/2002, represented a new basis for growth and strengthening of the association. In the two following years new organizational and working methods were introduced, more members took an active part in the work of the Union and its external impact was increased more promoted. This increase in members, expertise and skills ultimately led to the decision to spin off the WUWM from the IULA, which is why the Union took the necessary steps in 2003 to achieve legal independence. Under the leadership of the then chairman of the board, Marc Spielrein, and in close cooperation with the board members and the general secretary, the WUWM was re-established as an independent non-profit association based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The founding members of the association were Douglas Noakes from Great Britain (in recognition of his work as former President of the WUWM) and Rolf Brauer from Germany (in recognition of his longstanding contribution to the WUWM as an active member and Deputy President).
The location of the wholesale markets and the WUWM
In the 70s and 80s, who saw wholesale markets a number of problems over; These included the emergence and strengthening of new types of supply routes, urban growth, environmental issues, a growing logistics industry and the new concerns of consumers - especially with regard to the quality and safety of food - as well as an ever larger range of products in demand due to the needs of ethnic minorities. As a result, the wholesale markets were constantly forced to implement change and modernization strategies.
The effective alignment of the wholesale markets to the new needs has also required a fundamental change in the market concept. Logistics issues, hygiene standards in the production facilities and the participation of market companies in the management of the market have come to the fore.
Accordingly, at the end of the 1990s and at the beginning of the new millennium, new stores emerged to replace disused production facilities and investments were made to convert older stores to meet the latest hygiene and safety requirements. Countries where this process of new construction and refurbishment has had the greatest impact include Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France and the Czech Republic. Based on these developments, the good practice guidelines for wholesale markets were approved in May 2004 at the meeting of the European Union working group within the WUWM. These guidelines are based on EU regulations on food quality and safety. Members from outside Europe have followed this work with great interest and asked the WUWM to coordinate similar work in their countries.
The recent eastward expansion of the European Union in connection with the important role that WUWM member markets play both there and in the candidate countries as well as in Russia and China, occupies a key position in the development and strengthening of the market economy and offers the possibility of the activities to expand the WUWM and gain new members. The population growth in Latin America and Asia and the concentration of the population in ever larger metropolitan areas have created new incentives to reorganize the supply of food to people and have drawn attention to the importance of wholesale markets.
It should be emphasized that wholesale markets play an important role in economic and logistics planning in urban areas, as well as in the support and development of agricultural production, in addition to their task of supplying them. As initiatives in Brazil and some northern European countries clearly show, wholesale markets are also beneficial for the social inclusion of marginalized groups.
The realization that eating habits have a great deal to do with the health of a people has led to increasing intervention measures by the relevant authorities; the markets therefore participate in many programs and projects aimed at increasing consumer awareness of the relationship between eating habits and health.
Since the recently concluded agreement of the World Trade Organization ( WTO) provides for a liberalization of the global trade in agricultural products, the international procurement of food will continue to increase, which means international cooperation between producers and all actors in the supply chain, including the wholesale markets, in terms of quality and safety of food requires.
As representatives of wholesale markets from all over the world with their many different players and large flows of mostly perishable goods, the responsibility and the fields of activity of the WUWM are correspondingly large. The expectations of the members of the WUWM are also enormous. The extent to which the WUWM can meet these expectations largely depends on whether it is able to win the support of the international institutions dealing with these issues and to what extent the members are willing to contribute. The WUWM brings together food markets from many regions of the world and although the markets have different organizational forms, socio-economic environments, development histories and experiences, one can rightly claim that the WUWM has the potential to form a competence network from proven technical and scientific skills and that it is worthwhile to further develop the services of the WUWM for all members and all wholesale markets and market operators.
The position of the retail and weekly markets within the WUWM
A division for the retail and weekly markets was set up in 2001 by the WUWM. As it became increasingly clear that many of the questions that the wholesale markets deal with also concern the retail or weekly markets , the important role of these markets was formally recognized in September 2005 at the 24th Congress in Baltimore , USA. On this occasion, a declaration by the WUWM on these markets was prepared, which outlines a concrete description of a retail or weekly market. In the following period, a WUWM committee was formally set up for retail and weekly markets and these markets and their market traders and actors were approved as general members of the WUWM.
Reference material
- Statutes of the WUWM 2003
- Documentation of the general assembly of the WUWM in October 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark
- Strategic plan of the WUWM, 2007–2009