Allister welcomes Food Prices in Europe Report
26 March 2009
The passing by the European Parliament of a report on "Food Prices in Europe" has been welcomed by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister, particularly because of its robust calls for investigation into abuses by the large supermarkets.
A long-term campaigner against the unfair practices whereby producers are squeezed by the major retailers, Mr Allister referred to the recent record profits of Tesco, in contrast to the struggle of farmers to make a living.
In the course of his remarks in Parliament Mr Allister said:-
"I greatly welcome this report as a shot across the bows of the supermarket giants. Tesco, for example, recently announced profits of £2.8Billion, while food producers in my constituency struggle to make a living.
The major supermarkets have been abusing their buying power to suppress prices to suppliers to unsustainable levels and to impose unfair and unilateral demands as the price of retaining the contract. In the long run, as the UK Competition Commission has said, this will equally damage consumers as choice, availability and quality is squeezed out of the market.
Thus, I support the call for an EU Commission investigation into the margin share in the production and distribution chain. Someone somewhere is doing very nicely, but it certainly isn't the producer, without whom there would be no produce for middle men and retailers to exploit."
