Kroger Drops 90 Day Payment Policy Set To Take Effect In August

Kroger Co. has revoked a payment schedule that would have extended payment terms to 90 days for produce suppliers.

Kroger’s senior manager of enterprise sourcing finance Matt Hodge wrote in a letter dated July 9th that the retailer has responded to concerned suppliers who decried the policy.

“Our produce suppliers received a letter outlining our recently-modernized payment terms and supply chain finance opportunity. We’ve shared with individual produce suppliers that we will respect existing contractual and legal mandates including PACA. We never intended for PACA-eligible produce suppliers to waive their PACA Trust rights,” Hodge wrote in the letter. “At the same time, we’ve welcomed and listened to feedback from our produce suppliers and other important stakeholders—including yours. I’d like to take this opportunity to clearly state that produce suppliers protected under PACA are not required to participate in Net 90 payment terms.”

“We’ve shared with individual produce suppliers that we will respect existing contractual and legal mandates including PACA. We never intended for PACA-eligible produce suppliers to waive their PACA Trust rights,” the letter states.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to clearly state that produce suppliers protected under PACA are not required to participate in Net 90 payment terms,” Hodge wrote. “For those PACA-eligible produce suppliers who are interested, we will continue to negotiate for payment terms that are permitted within their PACA Trust rights.”

Source: PerishableNews.com