Not so fresh: Bunbury Farmers Market addresses half-baked meal-kit plans

The South West’s go-to grocer has taken to social media to address concerns from customers that a popular meal-kit service was using its products as a means of piggybacking off its hard-earned reputation. Bunbury Farmers Market posted a statement online on Wednesday evening to set the record straight, denying any links to the meal-kit operation HelloFresh. “It appears that a national meal-kit delivery service also loves Bunbury Farmers Market,” the statement read. “We supply direct to our wonderful guests and will keep you updated about all exciting developments in store or via our socials.” BFM owner Kevin Opferkuch said customers raised the alarm on Sunday, telling Mr Opferkuch they had signed up to the meal-kit service after being told by door-to-door sales representatives that the ingredients were sourced directly from the market. “They said the salesperson, door-knocking, outlined how all the products from fruit and veg and meat comes from Bunbury Farmers Market,” he said. “On the strength of that he decided to sign up, but when the box arrived, he could see that wasn’t our product, which prompted the email to get verification.” Mr Opferkuch’s post on Facebook quickly gained traction, with the high volume of comments revealing it was not an isolated incident. “We’re a bit grumpy about the whole thing, because it’s systemic, and it looked quite deliberate, to be honest, over a long period of time,” he said. “We’ve had hundreds of folk tell us that they’ve had door-knockers both here in the South West and in Perth claiming product comes directly from the farmers market which is not true — it’s not even slightly true. “It’s disturbing, and we’re not happy.” One customer even commented with a shot of a conversation from the site’s online chat which confirmed the business used BFM produce. He said the BFM was looking into the matter and thanked his customers for reaching out to raise the issue but said the business would never consider involving itself with meal-kit services. “We are looking at what we can do to prevent it,” he said. “It’s very, very irritating, but we’re looking at it and we’re trying to get an understanding of how much of it’s gone on.” “We’re not doing delivery service at all. We have lots of beautiful fresh product that we make in store and meal solutions that sell really well.” A spokesperson from HelloFresh issued a statement in response to the matter, apologising for the “inconvenience.” “We’re truly sorry to hear about the misinformation spread by our direct sales team and we apologise to Bunbury Farmers Market for the inconvenience caused,” they said. “We are currently in the process of reaching out to them directly and have apologised publicly on their social media pages.” They confirmed they do not receive product from BFM, and that the rumours were an “employee misunderstanding.” “This is currently being investigated with the team but we do believe this to be an isolated incident,” they said. “Rest assured that we will retrain our agents to make clear that while we do procure from local farmers as much as possible, we do not procure from Bunbury Farmers Market. “We do believe this was a case of misunderstanding on our employees behalf, however, we do take instances like this rather seriously so it will be acted upon swiftly.”