CANBERRA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Australia's second biggest supermarket chain has announced it will sell "ugly" fruit at a discount in an attempt to cut down on waste.
Coles, which turned a profit of 738 million Australian dollars (508 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of financial year 2018/19, will trial the "I'm Perfect" program at stores in South Australia and Victoria.
Under the program, customers at those stores will be able to purchase bags of "ugly" imperfect apples, pears, oranges, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots and lemons for between 10 and 30 percent cheaper than their "perfect" counterparts.
It comes five years after Woolworth, the nation's biggest supermarket chain, launched its own similar scheme under the name "Odd Bunch".
"The I'm Perfect range will introduce our customers to millions of pieces of fruit and vegetables that they may otherwise never have met," Brad Gorman, Coles general manager of produce, told Fairfax Media on Tuesday.
"All of these products help reduce food waste and increase overall crop yields by utilizing vegetable pieces that typically would not be sold at retail level," Gorman said.
The Australian government in February 2018 established a national food waste strategy committee with the aim of halving food waste by 2030. Josh Frydenberg, who was the Minister for the Environment and Energy at the time but is now Australia's Treasurer, said that food waste costs the economy 20 billion Australian dollars (about 13.8 billion U.S. dollars) every year.
"We produce enough food to feed about 60 million people," he said.
According to advocacy group OzHarvest, five million tons of food end up in landfill in Australia every year.
