Last Sunday, another Lemon Festival took place in the parish of Ilha, in the municipality of Santana. As is regularly the case, the event was visited by a wide range of personalities and organizations, including political parties, both from the regional government and the opposition.
One of the parties that did so was the JPP. DIÁRIO reported on this trip, in a news story titled ‘JPP defends investment in agriculture and the valorization of regional lemons in Santana’ and the entry ‘“Priority should be investing in lemons and not in the construction of golf courses”, says Élvio Sousa’.
Among the various comments prompted by this publication on the DIÁRIO platform, at dnoticias.pt, is that of AP Roque, who linked a possible presence of the Lidl supermarket chain in Madeira to solving the problem of distributing regional production, not limiting himself, in his formulation, to lemons.
Is the reader, and those who like him, correct in associating the often-announced but never-realized arrival of the Lidl chain in the region with solving the problems of distributing agricultural products?
The verification of the statement’s veracity will be carried out by analyzing the agricultural product procurement policies of Lidl and the other two major supermarket chains operating in Portugal and present in Madeira, Continente and Pingo Doce. This fact check will exclude questions related to responsibility for delays in Lidl’s arrival in the Region.
Let’s start with the part of the statement that is substantiated. As Lidl Portugal explains on its official website, the company works with national suppliers, created the ‘Da Minha Terra’ project for small national and regional producers, and allows the sale of selected products regionally or nationally, depending on the producer’s supply capacity. In the same information, Lidl states that applicants must have at least HACCP certification and that their entry depends on a prior evaluation. In other words, it is true that the chain partners with producers and may integrate regional products into its assortment.
It is also true that, when announcing its expansion to Madeira in 2021, Lidl stated on its institutional website that its entry into the Region aimed to boost the local economy, including “establishing partnerships with local suppliers,” and even estimated purchases from Madeiran suppliers in the order of 20 million euros. The idea of linking to regional producers was therefore neither invented nor deduced by the DIÁRIO reader.
The problem lies in the next step: suggesting that Lidl’s presence would, by itself, solve the problem of distributing regional agricultural production. This conclusion does not automatically follow from the facts mentioned before. Firstly, because the two large chains already established in Madeira also claim to work with national production and local suppliers. Pingo Doce states on its official website that it creates lasting and high-quality partnerships with trusted producers to bring the best of national production to its stores. The Jerónimo Martins group, owner of the brand, explains in its 2024 Annual Report that it remains committed to ensuring that at least 80% of the food products sold in each country come from local suppliers, and adds that, in Portugal, Pingo Doce acquired more than 14,000 tons of cherries, apples, and kiwis from national production in 2024, in addition to reinforcing its range of specialized perishables with national products.
Regarding Continente, the company itself explains in an official report that the Continente Producers Club was created in 1998 to support national production, that suppliers must meet strict certification requirements, and that the model is based on structured support for production and the integration of that production into the commercial chain. In the same document, Continente also mentions hundreds of members and large-scale purchases from national producers.
Thus, the idea that only Lidl would have “agreements with regional producers” does not withstand comparison with the official information from other chains. Continente and Pingo Doce also maintain organized and long-lasting relationships with local producers and suppliers. The difference lies not in the existence or not of these relationships, but in how they are organized. These are, as a rule, centralized supply chains with requirements for quality, regularity, scale, and certification, and not ad hoc purchases, store by store, from any small farmer. In the case of Lidl, this is clear when the company subordinates the entry of products to its supply capacity and compliance with technical requirements.
From this, a safe conclusion can be drawn. Lidl’s potential entry into Madeira could increase competition in the retail sector and open another commercial avenue for regional producers. However, it doesn’t allow us to conclude with certainty that it would solve the problem of product distribution. This problem also depends on the scale of production, the regularity of supply, the organization of producers, logistics, and the ability to meet the standards required by large supermarkets.
Based on the above, we considered the reader’s statement inaccurate. It is correct in the part where it attributes to Lidl the practice of partnerships with regional and national producers. However, it becomes excessive when it suggests that its presence would be enough to solve the problem of selling Madeira’s agricultural production, also implying that the operators already present – Continente and Pingo Doce – do not buy locally, something that the official information from both contradicts.