Farmers Must No Longer ‘Take the Hit’: Carmichael Unveils Landmark Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill

Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael has introduced the Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill in the UK Parliament. Carmichael brought the bill forward on Wednesday 19 March.

The bill is intended to introduce a range of provisions to secure fairer prices for farmers and food producers across the UK. It includes strengthening the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) in terms of remit and resources, supporting greater public procurement of locally produced food, and enhancing origin labelling requirements.

In his speech, Carmichael said the market for agricultural produce in the UK “has not been a free market since the end of the Second World War.” He stated that, as a consequence, the market today features supermarkets at the top, with hundreds of thousands of farmers at the bottom, and “a variety of processors, distributors and others in the middle.”

“Everyone takes their cut and then, at the end of it all, the farmers get whatever is left,” the MP said.

Carmichael noted that shortly after the autumn budget he met with a group of young farmers in his constituency. “They were despondent in pointing out to me that their businesses earned a net profit of 0.7% on their capital,” he said. “They were not much cheered up when I pointed out that they were doing better than many of their contemporaries, as Defra figures say that the average return is as low as 0.5%.”

Carmichael, who is the chair of the environment, food and rural affairs committee, said that elsewhere in the UK, the removal of money that was ringfenced to be given to devolved administrations has left farmers feeling vulnerable to adverse change.

He also criticised the limitations of the GCA, stating that it had not administered a fine in the entirety of its existence. The MP cited a YouGov poll on the GCA, saying 42% of suppliers would not raise issues because they believed “the retailer would find out and that there would be consequences.”

The bill has support across the House of Commons, with members of Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National Party, Greens, and Democratic Unionists named as sponsors. It will have its second reading on Friday 20 June.

Source: Agriland