VIDEO: Spelman pledge on Tesco price cuts

DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman has said the government will keep a ‘close eye’ on how retailers go about cutting prices for shoppers.

The warning came after Britain’s biggest supermarket, Tesco, announced a ‘Big Price Drop’ campaign with cuts across 3,000 products.

The NFU has said it is concerned that the extent of the cuts will force Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons to follow suit – and if they do the costs must not be passed back to farmers.

In an interview with Farmers Weekly (26 September), Mrs Spelman said that price cuts were good news for consumers.

The message that UK farmers are not in a position to subsidise in-store cost-cutting promotions, has also been reinforced by the National Beef Association.
 
The NBA said while there had been an increase in prices for beef animals there had been a continuing rise in the cost of feed and fuel, so farmers’ margins remained tight.

But she did not want to see cuts being at the expense of farmers who were themselves suffering from inflationary input costs.

Kim Haywood, NBA Director, said: “Tesco is a multimillion pound business and must accommodate its cost cutting concepts without jeopardising the future of the British suckler herd.

“It must provide a decent income to farmers so they can continue to invest in their businesses and produce top quality beef animals in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”