New regulations will be laid in Parliament to ensure dairy, poultry and pig farmers’ contracts pay a fair price. It follows a high-profile campaign by Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, to ensure supermarket pay a fair price: Mr Loder wrote to each of the ‘Big Six’ supermarkets last month calling for this ‘immoral’ practice to be rectified.
Mr Loder said: “I’m pleased to see that the Government will introduce new regulations to ensure that farmers’ contracts with supermarkets are fair and transparent, with clear pricing terms for farmers. The regulations will apply to new and existing contracts. It’s immoral that many farmers and food producers who supply the supermarkets are still turning a negligible profit – sometimes of less than 1p profit for the food they produce when supermarkets declare record profits.”
He continued: “It’s also good to see the introduction of a £15 million fund for farmers to redistribute surplus food at the farm gate which cannot currently be used commercially. This will reduce waste, ensuring that produce is instead put to good use.”
