Auckland fruit and vege markets reduce waste by selling less-than-perfect produce

The carrots are too big, the capsicums are too small and the pears are a bit bruised.

Imperfections like this could be seen at fresh produce that ended up at Perfectly Imperfect pop-up fruit and vege market in west Auckland.

It had been open for just 10 minutes and already about 20 shoppers were in the queue to fill their bags.

And they did not seem bothered if their fruit and veg was a bit wonky or misshapen.

"My son's a fruit addict and we can't afford to give him the fruit that he wants at the moment," one shopper said.

The produce had been supplied by a not-for-profit called Perfectly Imperfect.

A shopper with a bag full of Perfectly Imperfect produce.

Pop-up markets were held on Fridays in Westgate, Mount Roskill and Whangaparoa. Customers paid $15 a bag for whatever had been supplied on the day.

There were limits on how much fruit and vegetable you could pick, but the customers didn't seem to mind.

Magda was a volunteer at a community workspace that hosts the Westgate market.

"The vegetables that are usually rejected by supermarkets because they are not aesthetically appealing, so we get whatever supermarkets do not want and we sell them for $15," she said.

In just half an hour, more than 100 customers had already filled their bags with fruit and vegetables.

A volunteer holding bok choy at the Westgate market.

Perfectly Imperfect was started by Wendy Zhao during Covid-19. She was shocked when she learned more than 40 percent of produce did not even leave the farm - simply because it did not look good enough.

Her goal was to save the 122,000 tonnes of food from becoming waste.

She ran the Mount Roskill market with four other volunteers. Wendy said growers planted crops based on their contract with buyers.

"They harvest based on the order for that week, which means they're really cherry-picking what is good to sell and buy for those foods like broccoli, cauliflower is simply growing every day. On a sunny day they grow double sized. And that's too big and it's not good to sell.

"It passes the best-before day in the field."

At the market, about 20 boxes of fresh fruit and veges were waiting to be collected by customers who had a pre-paid subscription with Perfectly Imperfect.

It was called a mystery box, and customers received a big bag or box filled with a wide variety of fruit and veges, depending on what was available.

Wendy said about 130 families were signed up to the service. Some of them chose to have the box delivered to them while others, like Finn and his mum, preferred to come to the market to pick it up.

He read about Perfectly Imperfect on a Reddit thread.

"Maybe the apples are a bit small, funny shapes, but quite a lot of the time I genuinely can't tell the difference."

And everyone who came to this week's market got a free gift - vegan cauliflower ice cream donated by Perfectly Imperfect's business partner EatKinda, which had bought 150kg of cauliflower from them.

The vegan ice cream maker is one of several businesses that support the not-for-profit to prevent food waste.

May and her children were one of the first customers at the Westgate market.

But Perfectly Imperfect was not Wendy's only job. From Monday to Thursday she worked as a data analyst at a bank, with the remainder of her week dedicated to the not-for-profit.

Wendy said some days it was tough juggling everything.

"I almost want to quit, to be honest. It's just too overwhelming and I feel really stressed at the moment with the deliveries."

Wendy said her delivery partner had announced a price increase, and it could mean customers would no longer be able to have their boxes delivered. She would need community help if she was to keep Perfectly Imperfect going, she said.