Business (AS & A Level) · Feb / March 2023 · Paper 22 · Question 1

Fruit Farm (FF) FF is a private limited company that provides packaged fruit to the industrial market (B2B). The farm grows a variety of different fruits including apples, bananas, and strawberries. The production process is labour intensive. FF employs 80 fruit pickers and uses piece rates as the method of payment (see Table 1.1). Table 1.1 Data about FF’s fruit pickers’ payment Payment ($) Apples (per box) 2.00 Bananas (per box) 1.50 Strawberries (per tray) 3.00 Motivation among the fruit pickers is poor. The fruit pickers’ main concerns are: • poor induction for new employees • no encouragement of multi‑skilling • an autocratic management style. The employees would like to introduce time‑based payment at a rate of $4.50 per hour, to replace the piece rate payment. The food industry has recently been criticised for a lack of sustainability. In response, FF’s directors plan to move from single‑use plastic packaging to using recycled materials. This would require the purchase of new machinery to package the fruit. The machinery would make the packaging production more capital intensive. FF’s directors are also considering growing fruits that require fewer chemicals and less water. However, this will require changes to FF’s supply chain management. 5 10 15 20

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