Commitment to home food call

NFU representatives have demanded a greater slice of the 99bn domestic grocery market to safeguard supplies of produce.

At the launch of Tescos Understanding the Modern Supply Chain seminars, NFU livestock committee chairman Les Armstrong warned retailers that farmers affected by foot-and-mouth were close to pulling back from mainstream production.

Many of us want to resume farming, but will not commit ourselves unless there is a clear message that we have a buyer for our produce willing to pay a fair price.

Tesco revealed that only one-third of the retail price of lamb was paid to producers, with the remainder split between processing, packaging and in-store costs.

These figures alarmed producers. That tells me there is a huge amount of cost being built into the system over which I have no control, said Mr Armstrong.