Video: Farmers stage midnight blockade of supermarket depots

Farmers have staged a surprise overnight blockade of three major supermarket distribution centres in Northamptonshire, demanding higher farmgate prices and accusing retailers of squeezing producers while prices rise for consumers.

At midnight on Sunday 4 January, some 32 farmers used tractors to block two Tesco depots and one Sainsbury’s site in the Daventry area.

Loaded lorries were prevented from entering or leaving the sites, while empty vehicles and supermarket staff arriving for work were allowed through.

See also: Farmers take festive tractors to London protest

Police attended the depots but left after several hours, having established that the protest was peaceful and that no main roads were being obstructed.

Farmers involved in the action said depot staff were “very accommodating” and “sympathetic to their concerns”.

The blockade, which ended shortly before 8am today (Monday 5 January), was aimed squarely at supermarket buying practices amid growing anger over supply chain margins.

Farmers say rising production costs and static farmgate prices are pushing more businesses to the brink.

Farmers from six counties – Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire – took part in the protest.

Independent group

A spokesman for the group said the farmers who took part were independent and not affiliated with any group. He said they had been left with no option but to take direct action.

“Farmers are sick and tired of unfair supermarket buying practices,” he said.

“They are bringing in imported food under the cost of production compared to the high environmental and welfare standards we are required to meet.

“The supermarkets are putting cheap imported food on our shelves, displacing high-welfare British produce when they should be selling more British lamb, for example.

“We are on our knees. This has been going on for years. We need fairness.”

Farmers ‘squeezed from all sides’

Philip Weston, a fifth-generation farmer from Hartwell, Northamptonshire, took part in the protest, warning that growers are being squeezed from all sides.

He said: “Whilst the farm inheritance tax fiasco has taken the limelight, farmers are in a period where input costs are extremely high but the prices we’re getting are extremely low.

“At the same time, supermarkets are making record profits and their bosses are rewarding themselves huge bonuses.

“How can it be right that we have got farmers tipping milk down the drain whilst milk is retailing at historically high prices?”

Mr Weston called on major retailers to work with farmers and government to deliver fairer pricing, arguing that “prices should be index-related to cost of production so that they never dip below the cost of production and an ombudsman should regulate this”.

He added that margins in the arable sector were now so tight he was considering taking a third of his farm out of production this year.

Several of the farmers involved also took part in tractor protests on Wednesday 10 December calling for changes to the government’s farm inheritance tax policy.

Those involved stressed that the protest was not linked to the former Farmers To Action group or the newer Farmers Take Action campaign.

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Further action planned

Organisers said further supermarket depot blockades were being planned as part of their campaign for fairer prices, although no further action was expected this week.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) released a statement in response on behalf of the retailers.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said: “Food retailers source, and will continue to source, the vast majority of their food from the UK and are proud to support British agriculture.

“Supermarkets remain committed to paying farmers a sustainable price for their produce and supply chains are strictly regulated by the groceries code adjudicator to ensure suppliers are treated fairly.”