UK farming ‘on its knees’ as supermarkets are urged to show fairness
From field and farm to our kitchen table every year we spend billions on fruit and veg but amongst the farmers producing there is growing anger many calling for a toughening of the law claiming supermarkets are being fair when buying British it’s just knocking the lifeblood out of British agriculture
We have an industry that is on its knees where Farmers don’t have the confidence to invest they have no faith in the length of their relationship with their major buyers more than 100,000 have signed a new petition calling on the government to change the current grocery laws to
Ensure that supermarkets buy what they committed to buy pay on time and agree Fair specifications like the size and shape of fruit and veg strange relations between farmer and Supermarket are nothing new But Rising costs in farming and pressure to keep consumer prices low are exacerbating the problem this British potato grower had
To throw out 60 tons of salad potatoes after a major British Supermarket cancelled the order basically it came to harvest time we got the potatoes out of the ground harvested them and then we were at that point informed that they’ve been delisted I.E they weren’t on the variety list that the supermarket were
Wanting to take any longer it it’s frustrating because there’s a there’s a lack of communication and and also um powerlessness it was the last straw he no longer sells to supermarkets essentially Farmers say that the relationship they have with supermarkets simply isn’t balanced discrepancies in what passes quality control from one
Harvest to the next and simply not knowing what supermarkets are going to order until quite late on in the season he making the business of of farming increasingly difficult but those representing supermarkets deny retailers and not giving Farmers security it’s just not true I mean supermarkets have very very long-standing relationships with their
Direct suppliers now it may be that the farmers don’t always have a contract with the supply with the supermarket directly because they may go through a middleman that could be a processor it could be a packer but those Packers and processes are actually quite large businesses and most of those who have
Had long-term relationships with supermarkets the government says it is committed to tackling contractual unfairness in the Agri food supply chain it’s launched a public consultation and the petition will be debated in Parliament in January campaigners say there is no time to waste claiming nearly half of British
Fruit and veg Farmers fear they’ll go out of business next year if reforms aren’t made damn wh head Sky News
Parliament will debate a petition in January calling for tougher laws to ensure supermarkets act fairly when buying produce from British farmers – with claims the industry is “on its knees.”
The Get Fair About Farming campaign has received more than 100,000 signatures as Sky’s Dan Whitehead explains.
#uk #farming
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37 comments
I think producing food in britian is a national security issue, ive been saying this for years and i think given world events im doubly correct now
Back in the golden era of farming we used treat the cows like family and even tickled them sometimes and it resulted in top quality cow meat
UK politicians on their knees in front of corporate lobbyists…
Well, no wonder they can't make any money they should try standing up they will get far more done
WW2 taught us many lessons but not to be self sufficent it seems.
and uk supposed to have shortages ?
Farmers vote for Brexit like turkeys voting for Christmas. Newsflash for Tory supporting farmers. There is no balance between Corporates and those they feed off.
I thought British farms were going to be the mainstay of food for the UK after Brexit?
Farmers voted for cheaper food.
What is the problem then?
They should buy those robots Gove, Mogg, Fartage told them about.
Another Sky FUD story.
It's abit stupid tho that there's a whole wide world out there and because some idiots look at the world as divided sectors, ohh this is England, this is Africa, this is whatever etc etc, they don't realise we can grow an abundance of food plus some and ship it from one place to another all year round, so don't see the benefit of just buy British, Britain can send stuff to other countries to
Wherever the supermarkets are getting there mear from needs reviewing tastes Awful.
Surprise shocker…As early as 2012 Patrick Minford of 'Vote Leave' said that any form of Brexit would degrade the Uk's Manufacturing and Agricultural Industries
Like most other products, it's greed at the top for more profit and bigger bonuses.
According to the British government UK farmers are merely worthless tenant surfs that can be replaced by foreign migrant labor organized by multinational food corporations. Cheaper produce can be bought from Canada and other English speaking colonial outposts abroad. Buying British means absolutely nothing for the House of Lords that is already in process of replacing the population with Third World migrants.
Farmers need to unite across the country and open their own supermarkets like an old school cooperative and cut out the greedy supermarkets. And only supply to private butchers and green grocers again. They would get better profits as well while still keeping food cheaper.
Maybe the potatoe farmer should have asked for a deposit.
The UK is 2.93 TRILLION pounds in debt it has to think of ways of saving money or there will be none left
I grow my own vegetable been doing this over 10 years 😊
Global Britain
First they blame EU, now supermarkets? This is what happens after 13 years of tory rule
Why is sky hiding the potato farmers identity? very odd. Apparently European supermarkets are importing produce from Ukraine and Israel to feed that economy for war
Supermarkets rob farmers and shoppers alike. All farmers want is a fair slice of the pie for doing the hard and dirty work of producing food. Supermarket greed is nothing short of criminal
the turkeys voted for Christmas and now they are getting roasted…don`t see a problem there.
There is already a large export of fish going to japan that would have gone to the EU and even more next year when the French Quota get smaller .
Not surprised, as was in project fear and experts said before we left EU.
Clarkson isn't going to like this one bit.
The farmers all voted brexitard and now can't compete with EU and other countries due to no cheap EU labour, no food standards in the UK so everyone wants EU imported food with actual health and safety standards. More brexitard "winning". Fun times.
They knew what they were voting for… even though the farmers union warned them they were being lied too!
It's consumers fault for buying from the supermarkets. Buy from farmers' markets instead
Europe is having the same problem. Thanks WEF
Is there a Brexit opportunity or Freedom than can be used to help UK farmers?
The uk is a joke and so is parliament all about money people need to start standing up against this
Pork markets!
There isn't much on the shelves in my supermarket most days.
60 tons of potatoes chucked away and there are people going hungry. Unbelievable.
I feel sorry for our farmers , treated unfairly by the supermarkets while they hike the prices , claim there's going to be a shortage then import it, basically a middle finger to our farmers , bring back local markets on a large scale again! The supermarkets have too much power!