Summary
Our shops are full of products sourced from all over the world, and its someone’s job to find and secure them – at the right quality and quantity for the best price possible. In this programme Ruth Alexander speaks to three food buyers on three different continents. She is joined by Beatrice Muraguri, a Tea Buyer and exporter based in Mombasa, Kenya; Chloe Doutre-Roussel, who travels the world sourcing cacao beans for speciality chocolate makers. And Jim Gulkin, the chief executive of a trading company, which deals mainly in frozen seafood based in Bangkok, Thailand.
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Produced by Rumella Dasgupta and Beatrice Pickup.
(Image: a cup of tea with teabag in it, a peeled prawn and some squares of milk chocolate. Credit: Getty Images/ BBC)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio. Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start |
| 0:29.2 | with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.5 | I'm walking down the fruit and veg aisle of worldwide foods, |
| 0:39.7 | the supermarket here in Manchester in the northwest of England. |
| 0:43.4 | Now, what have we got here? |
| 0:45.3 | Mangoes from Pakistan. |
| 0:47.2 | Passion fruit from Colombia. |
| 0:49.2 | Oranges from Spain. |
| 0:51.0 | And fresh time all the way from Morocco. |
| 0:56.4 | On the aisles just over there, you've got tea from India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, China. In the frozen aisle, fish states from Vietnam, |
| 1:02.0 | mackerel from the Black Sea coast. There is produce here from all over the world. The UK |
| 1:08.1 | spends billions of dollars importing approximately 46% almost half of the world. The UK spends billions of dollars importing approximately 46% almost half of the food it |
| 1:15.3 | consumes. To get to this store, products pass through many hands and in this episode of the |
| 1:21.2 | food chain from the BBC World Service with me Ruth Alexander, we're focusing on one particular |
| 1:27.4 | crucial pair of hands, that of the |
| 1:30.3 | buyer. |
| 1:31.2 | Who are they? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.