Quote, unquote: just-food's week in words

The UK - not to mention much of Europe and the US - experienced the big freeze this week. Relations between Kraft Foods and largest shareholder Warren Buffett have seemingly turned cold after the so-called Sage of Omaha said he would not back the US food giant's plans to use its shares to fund its bid for Cadbury. Tensions grew in the UK over issues like GM and the Government's blueprint for the country's food sector between now and 2030. And, while Sainsbury's booked some robust sales figures, its chief executive warned 2010 would be tough - a notion with which his counterparts at Japan's Seven & I Holdings would no doubt agree.

"A few deliveries have been slightly delayed in the worst affected areas, but they have all reached stores and shelves have been stocked with soup, bread, stews, ready meals and all the other things that customers have wanted to buy during the freeze" - Sainsbury's plays down fears that the coldest UK weather for 30 years has affected deliveries into stores.

"To state the matter simply, a shareholder voting "yes" today is authorizing a huge transaction without knowing its cost or the means of payment" - Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle led by Warren Buffet and Kraft Foods' largest investor, slams the company's plans to issue shares to fund its Cadbury sortie.

"Kraft talk about discipline in making their derisory offer but it's really about management weakness. In essence their offer is limited by powerful Kraft shareholders restricting the stock content and constrained by Kraft's rating agencies limiting the cash content" - Cadbury chairman Roger Carr again hits out at Kraft.

"We have 152 products representing 77 brands, that are either number one or number two in their market. We believe we have sufficient size and scale in different dimensions of the business that will allow us to continue to compete effectively, regardless of what happens in our industry segment" - Nestle CFO Jim Singh insists the Kit Kat maker can compete in candy - whatever happens to Cadbury.

"There is no reason to suppose that for consumers there is much good news in 2010" - Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King takes a cautious tone on the year ahead.

"We expected convenience store operations and the problematic GMS and department store operations to remain lacklustre, but they struggled more than we anticipated" - Goldman Sachs analysts in Tokyo issued a gloomy prognosis over the performance of Japan's largest retailer Seven & I Holdings.

"We urgently need a fresh approach, but the Government has served up business as usual and failed to address the global impacts of intensive meat and dairy production. Ministers must come clean about the need to cut down on meat and dairy" - Friends of the Earth's food campaigner Helen Rimmer insists the UK's blueprint for the food sector leaves a lot to be desired.

"GM is not going to feed a growing world population sustainably, now or in the future. We need far-reaching changes to our food and farming systems, rather than GM technology" - Emma Hockridge, policy manager of the Soil Association, condemns calls for more GM to bolster food production.

"This is one signal that the markets are now more closely in balance. Consumer demand is returning and global supply remains tight" - Paul Grave, globalDairyTrade manager at Fonterra, reacting to falling milk prices after months of increases.