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

Morrisons and Waitrose this week displayed a bullish confidence as the UK retailers - operating at different ends of the market - both reported bumper annual profits. Elsewhere in the UK, the country's Food Standards Agency backed plans for hybrid nutrition labels - and was prompty slammed by consumer advocates. Meanwhile, the Chinese government unveiled its latest bid to improve food safety in China in the wake of fresh contamination scandals. Here is a flavour of who said what this week.

"They're not going to do Market Street. It would be a difficult for anyone else to replicate. If there are games to be played, they're in a different game to the one we're in" - Morrisons CFO Richard Pennycook is sanguine about the prospect of ex-chief executive Marc Bolland's imminent arrival at Marks and Spencer.

"Waitrose has made enormous progress in the year with significant investment in both price and in the development of new shops, new formats and strategic partnerships" - Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership, hails a "more accessible" Waitrose.

"The FSA was set up to look out for the interests of consumers, but by backing down on labelling, it seems to have lost sight of this" - Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of UK consumer group Which?, argues the Food Standards Agency has relented to demands from the food industry on labelling.

“Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are at an all-time low. It is encouraging that both the US and Europe have indicated their support for a trade ban, but it is vital that other countries follow suit” - the WWF wants more nations to join the ban on trading in bluefin tuna.

"The quota regime is about to go and the world of dairy in Europe has changed. Therefore if the co-operative were to pursue this transaction it would place ownership of the assets most relevant to the co-operative in their control" - Glanbia MD John Moloney explains the Irish food group's plans to offload parts of the business.

"While Chinese consumers are open to innovations, they also adhere to tradition" - Maggie Wang, research and development director for biscuit technology within Kraft Foods' China and Asia Pacific divisions, outlines the challenge at the heart of launching products in China.

“When you see something like this coming from such a high level, and which simply reiterates many of the requirements of the food safety law itself, you can expect to see action by officials" - Roger Somerville, a government relations expert at the Beijing office of consultancy APCO Worldwide, believes China's latest attempt to tighten up food safety in the country could make a difference.

“All of our operating companies have started to fine-tune their pricing strategies to achieve local value leadership and we are gearing up for many other projects... We are ready for the challenges of 2010" - Delhaize president and CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers is bullish about the year ahead for the Belgian retailer - on both sides of the Atlantic.

"A lot of our investments are in every day price points and promotions – which is different from being promotional. But some of the programmes, once you get them started and you get customers liking them, to take them away actually runs the risk of derailing the process you started" - Kroger boss David Dillon emphasises the importance of sticking to the retailer's plans to invest in price.

“Looking forward, we don't have nearly the mountain to climb that we have had in the past” - Smithfield Foods chief executive and president Larry Pope believes the future looks bright for the US meat giant.