The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a giant among trade groups, is beginning to bleed members, with Nestlé the latest foodmaker to pull out, says Politico. “Complacency and a lack of leadership” at GMA are a factor, along with the hurly-burly of competing for sales in an evolving marketplace, it says.
Campbell Soup split from GMA months ago because it disagreed with the group’s fight against GMO food labeling. “Other major food companies are also eyeing the door: Dean Foods, the largest dairy company in the country, has quietly decided to leave the association. Several others, including Mars — one of the largest private food companies, which owns swaths of globally recognized brands from candy to pet food — are considering it,” says Politico.
GMA members disagreed so much over FDA’s proposal to list “added sugars” as part of the Nutrition Facts label that the trade group submitted comments that included majority and minority views, says Politico. The GMA and the food industry asked for more time to comply with the new labels; Coca-Cola disagreed. “But more fundamentally, members fault the association for not adapting more quickly to the changing consumer environment or the disruption in the marketplace.”
Jeff Nedelman, a GMA official during the 1980s and now a public relations expert, told Politico, “To me, it looks like GMA is the dinosaur just waiting to die.”