Supermarkets call the tune over suppliers
Does the general public know what farmers have to deal with when selling their produce?
I read the farming press, and I'm horrified, and I bet I don't understand the half of it,
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For example, in 2012 the NFU pledged to tackle retailers on their treatment of suppliers, particularly, 'over-riders' – demands by supermarkets for funding of in-store promotions, and lack of contracts.
The NFU horticultural adviser said she had 'ample fodder' to put to a grocery adjudicator, but preferred a voluntary Code of Conduct. If I was a cabbage farmer I wouldn't feel very reassured that the NFU was really on my side.
Later in 2012 milk, as usual, was used – as DairyCo put it – ' to bring consumers into stores', that's as a 'loss leader', but couldn't be specific without 'breaking commercial confidences'. Whose confidences? Somebody knows, but nobody's telling what profit supermarkets make on milk. DairyCo's insufficient "production costs data" was unreliable for calculating the Cost of Production" – but was still used by buyers to do just that.
And buyers can and do pay farmers different prices per litre for milk, Why, it's all milk?
Industry leaders met to devise the Code of Conduct which buyers would agree to voluntarily to cover contracts; farmers' 'get out clauses' – for when processors arbitrarily cut prices, and more 'transparency' in the supply chain. Then lawyers checked it for 'compliance with competition laws', and the NFU said there should be a whistle blower to protect the supplier and get them a fair price.
So a Groceries Code adjudicator was appointed, to clip the supermarkets' wings, but so far nothing much has been achieved, probably because she has no legal powers, and can only 'request' their co-operation. Perfect.
In 2015 Morrisons emailed their suppliers saying they needed their suppliers to 'support' the company with a lump sum. In other words, Morrisons, was demanding that suppliers pay them to sell their products. Shouldn't that be the other way round?
Pundits say this is competition, the only way for customers to have cheap food. But they agree that it will most likely mean less money for suppliers, slight cuts for customers and the same undisclosed profits for supermarkets. No changes there, then.
* Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer now living near Ellesmere and with her husband Peter is part of CowCash-UK.
