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Six in 10 farmers say they consider their farms at financial risk due to supermarket purchasing behaviour, with the industry branding the current regulatory scheme “unfit for purpose”.
A study led by the Vegetable Box Company riverford 68 percent farmers say they are earning livelihood Farming “It has never been so difficult”, while 69 percent believe that procurement relations between producers and retailers have deteriorated.
Almost every farmer surveyed (99 percent) reported facing at least one ‘unfair’ practice.
These include canceled orders, late payments and unfavorable, unfair or unprofitable pricing.
Supermarket Rejecting produce based on unreasonable demands such as specific color, size or shape, leading to wastage or low prices that do not cover costs were also cited, as were no notices from buyers of changed conditions.
Riverford said this is increasing pressure on growers, with 82 per cent of respondents saying unfair supermarket practices are contributing to stress and poor mental health among the farming community.
The industry is calling for a single food supply chain regulator to protect producers and ensure fair treatment by supermarkets and address the “power imbalance” between the two.
A survey for the study found that 76 percent of farmers believe the current supply chain regulatory system does not protect farmers from unfair supermarket practices, and is unfit for purpose.
Some 86 MPs have signed an early day motion calling for the existing supply chain watchdogs, which are currently split between two government departments, to be merged into one stronger, more effective body.
More than 3,000 people have also written to their MPs in support of better regulation.
Apple farmer Richard Stogdon, from Sussex, said relations between growers and supermarkets had become “significantly worse”, adding: “We take huge risks growing these crops.”
Hayden Evans, a dairy farmer from Carmarthen, Wales, said he successfully pressured his milk buyer to take advantage of a 1p per liter price increase from supermarkets, only to discover three months later that the buyer had been removed from the list.
He said: “Supermarkets know how much they are taking and how vulnerable farmers are – they take advantage of the power imbalance.
“They know you’re always negotiating with both hands tied behind your back.”
Third-generation farmer Jonathan Hoskins has also stopped supplying supermarkets altogether, saying: “I’m not stressed and I’m not worried about what our fruit is worth until it’s sold.”
Riverford’s survey shows that 65 per cent of farmers believe they have no choice but to accept supermarkets’ terms for fear of being left off the list, while 76 per cent feel under financial pressure from supermarket purchasing practices.
Guy Singh Watson, founder of Riverford, said: “For three years our #GetFairAboutFarming campaign has been calling for a regulator with real capacity, who can stand up to supermarkets and help address the huge power imbalances in our supply chains.
“More than 113,000 people have supported that call, and even Parliament has debated it, yet farmers are still being failed by the system that is meant to protect them.
“The Groceries Code Adjudicator’s own research shows that things are improving and this may be the case for larger companies with supermarket contracts, but our findings show that the opposite is true for the small and medium-sized family farms that produce most of our food.
“The problem is worse than before, with 69 percent of farmers saying relationships with supermarkets have worsened in the past two years.
“Farming shouldn’t feel like survival. It should be a livelihood to be proud of: growing good food, taking care of the land, and taking care of the people who work on it.”
“How can farmers do the right thing for their soil, their animals and the planet if they are forced to pay every penny and lack the money and security to invest in good farming over the long term? And how can they make good choices when shoppers are being misled by supermarket farmwashing?”
Georgina Edwards, sustainable farming campaign officer at food and agriculture coalition Sustain, said: “The latest research from Riverford clearly shows that farmers are being negatively impacted by unfair trading practices by supermarkets.
“Cancelled orders at short notice and delayed payments are still hurting farming businesses and the mental health of farmers.
“It is extremely worrying that three-quarters of farmers say retailers’ behavior is driving farms towards more intensive, environmentally damaging practices.
“Without taking more ambitious action to improve supply chain fairness, the government will fail to address the issue of agricultural profitability and support farmers in transitioning to nature-friendly farming practices.”
On Thursday, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds told the CLA rural business conference that the Government is supporting the country’s farmers to drive growth – with rural Britain contributing £259 billion to the economy and supporting more than half a million businesses.
He said: “This Government sees the rural economy as fundamental to our growth mission. When rural Britain succeeds, the whole country succeeds.”
“From food production to protecting nature, we are delivering on our ambitions for a rural area where businesses thrive, good jobs are created and our communities strengthen.”
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: “We support stronger regulation across the supply chain, which is why we have backed the agricultural decision in support of pig and poultry farmers.
“However, the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA) was established for a specific purpose, to regulate the supply chain relationships between supermarkets and their direct suppliers following extensive scrutiny by the government’s competition regulator.
“Many farmers do not supply products that enter the retail supply chain. Instead, they supply to hospitality, large food manufacturers or government food procurement.
“It would not be appropriate to extend the scope of the GCA to cover these areas, it would go beyond the regulator’s original recommendations and impose unnecessary costs on supermarket supply chains.”
Censuswide surveyed 200 horticultural farmers who currently have a direct contract with a supermarket or who have done business with a supermarket in the past five years between 2-10 October.