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- Supermarket code fails farmers
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Supermarket code fails farmers17 March 2003
A survey of farmers and growers published by Friends of the Earth reveals many feel the Supermarket Code of Practice, introduced a year ago, has made no difference to the way in which supermarkets did business with them. The survey also shows that farmers feel they cannot complain about supermarket practice because of fears that they will lose their contract and the market for their produce.
Working with the help of farming and public interest organisations, Friends of the Earth contacted UK farmers to ask about how they had been affected by the Supermarket Code of Practice, introduced a year ago following a Competition Commission investigation into the biggest supermarkets.
The survey findings, based on the responses of 161 farmers and growers from the dairy, livestock, arable, and fruit and vegetable growing sectors, showed:
- Fewer than half of those responding (44 per cent) were aware of the Code of Practice.
- More than half (58 per cent) did not think the code had made any different to the way supermarkets did business with them.
- Supermarkets currently covered by the code were all cited as continuing practices identified as being of concern to the Competition Commission.
- Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of farmers had been required to change transport or product packaging, without receiving compensation for additional costs; and 16 per cent had to meet the cost of unsold or wasted products, although the product was not at fault.
- Many farmers said they were being paid the same or less than the price of production for their produce (eg 52 per cent of dairy farmers).
- Many farmers support the idea of new legislation to prohibit the unfair trading practices of the supermarkets, and for an independent regulator to oversee the way in which supermarkets do business with suppliers.
- About a third of respondents who had experience problems supplying supermarkets said that "fear of delisting" was their reason for not complaining.
Friends of the Earth wants the Government to strengthen the Supermarket Code of Practice in line with the original recommendations made by the Competition Commission, and to impose this on supermarkets. The new code should be extended to cover farmers who supply supermarkets via an intermediary, such as a wholesaler or dairy. And the Government should appoint a new independent watchdog to ensure the new Code of Practice is effective.
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