NFU challenges supermarkets over undelivered promises

Peter Kendall, NFU president, has challenged the supermarkets to honour their promises to the industry over corporate responsibility and fair prices at the NFU’s Annual Conference, held at the Birmingham Metropole Hotel on Monday 26 February

“The top-of-the-range, smaller volume retailers are treating their suppliers fairly but I have yet to see their practices becoming mainstream.  I’ve been hearing the promises but so far I am seeing no delivery,” stated Mr Kendall.

“It is an encouraging sign that supermarkets are now falling over each other to paint themselves as the ‘greenest’ or ‘most responsible’ – but do they really mean it? 

“Are businesses dedicated to competitive price cutting really committed to being fair to their suppliers?  Or is it all about PR – about looking good because of customer expectation while still screwing down the price to the point where three dairy farmers are going out of business every day?” he added.   

Mr Kendall called for the supermarkets to “shoulder a much greater burden of responsibility” and to understand that farming must be profitable if retailers want to continue offering customers quality produce from a UK supply base.

“They must enter into supply arrangements where efficient producers, and those who add value, can prosper.  That’s not just corporate social responsibility; it is common sense,” he said.

Mr Kendall also discussed the issue of bioenergy and the role farmers must play to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

He made a promise that UK farmers would be “at the forefront of this valuable technology” if the government backed the EU Commission’s proposal for a 20% renewable energy target for 2020 and a 1% target for biofuel.