Organic veg box company Riverford has renewed calls for supermarkets to get fair about farming following damning findings presented by the House of Lords.
The report, delivered by the House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee, shed light on the ongoing challenges facing growers, exacerbated by the actions of the UK’s grocery giants.
The official inquiry, in which seven out of the eight biggest supermarkets repeatedly ignored invitations to give public evidence, revealed that only 17% of fruit consumed in the UK is grown domestically.
Instead, the report accused the supermarkets of continuing to buy cheaper supplies from abroad, and proceeded to condemn the “relentless competition between supermarkets to keep prices low“.
The public enquiry also pointed out how the actions by the UK’s grocery giants were “squeezing growers returns” in the face of “spiralling input costs”, making some crops unviable to produce.
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It stated: “We have also heard that they exert huge pressure over growers, who often feel like “minnows” in the face of behemothic supermarket power in a “savage marketplace.
“Loss-leader strategies, price-matching to the lowest bidder and the perceived imperative to offer low prices to consumers at the expense of grower returns is squeezing the UK horticultural sector out in favour of cheaper imports,” it concluded.
The new report comes amid a petition by Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson, which urged supermarkets to treat farmers more fairly.
“The stark reality is that half of our fruit and veg growers may be forced out of business over the next twelve months,” said Singh-Watson.
“One of the main reasons is the way they have been treated by supermarkets. We welcome the Horticulture Sector Committee’s comments and recommendations, but these now have to be put into action by the Government”.
Green peer Natalie Bennett added: “The Lords report shows a real opportunity for the government, to proactively support growth in a sector that urgently needs it, in the interests of public health, food security and ‘levelling up’.”
“That demands not only government attention and support on skills, access to land and business development, but also reining in the overfeeding power of the supermarkets, as the Get Fair About Farming campaign is demanding.”
