Arable farmer MEP Phillip Bennion welcomes the appointment of an independent Groceries Code Adjudicator

“The new system is designed to ensure a fairer deal for farmers and suppliers”

Last seen in dialogue at Andrew Hemmings’ farm, Phillip Bennion’s message is that farmers and suppliers now have someone fighting their corner against the big supermarkets.

Christine Tacon, who has wide experience in the food, retail and farming industry, has been appointed to the role of adjudicator by the Lib Dem Consumer and Competition Minister, Jo Swinson, to enforce the Groceries Supply Code of Practice, which regulates interactions between the ten largest supermarkets and farmers and suppliers.

The new system is designed to ensure a fairer deal for farmers and suppliers, who can complain to the Adjudicator if they are unfairly treated by supermarkets. If a breach of the code is found, the Adjudicator will be able to make recommendations against a supermarket or impose fines.

Welcoming the news, he said:

“Farmers and suppliers have been in an unfair fight with the big supermarkets. The protests we saw last year by dairy farmers in several counties in this region were due to frustration at the clear abuse of a monopoly going apparently unchallenged.

“Many farmers, not just in the dairy sector, have been receiving unfair prices from major supermarkets for years and are struggling to stay in business. The rural economy has been under real pressure.

“A sustainable rural community needs viable farms and local supply businesses and they deserve a fairer deal from government holding the ring.

“The EU is in charge of the Common Agricultural Policy but the way a few supermarkets have used and abused their monopoly power is a particularly British problem needing government action”.

He ends by noting that Jo Swinson has given farmers a real chance of a fairer deal by appointing an Adjudicator who has some real teeth and hoping that she will not be afraid to use them.

 

 

 

o

 

Farmer and Euro MP Phil Bennion warns supermarkets to heed consumer pressure and pay a fair price for milk

.

Food Security Concern will shortly hear about the rural apprenticeship scheme supported by MEP Phil Bennion. Whilst looking at his website another item was seen – a bonus – which will hearten readers who share our campaign for fair prices for food producers.

 

The MEP, an arable farmer and agronomist from Staffordshire, said the escalating protests also highlight the need for the government to introduce an Ofcom-style supermarket regulator.

His website noted that Asda recently raised the price it pays for milk to 27.5p per litre but it is still well below that paid by Co-op and Morrisons, who also recently raised their prices after farmers’ warnings that they faced bankruptcy.

Dr Bennion said: “I can understand the desperation and anger felt by dairy farmers who now have to sell milk for less than the price of bottled water. People have a right to peaceful protest.

“The crisis facing dairy farmers in this region is very deep. It has been accurately portrayed in The Archers on Radio 4, where David and Ruth Archer in a fictional Midlands county of Borsetshire are facing the possibility of selling their herd or going under after generations.

.

“The behaviour by some supermarkets screwing down the milk price paid to farmers to impossible levels is outrageous . . .

.

“We now see some supermarkets waking up as people power hits them where it hurts. The combination of farmer protests and consumers switching to the supermarkets that pay a fair price shows what can be achieved by modern communications.

“Consumers – including my wife – are now using networks like Facebook to share boycott campaigns and the offending supermarkets better look out. Given how many people are now on Facebook this kind of campaigning is already significant and could be decisive.

“But we also need to see more pro-active regulatory action. The voluntary approach is not enough . . .

 

“Supermarkets need continuity of supply and therefore long term contracts. However, dairy farmers’ costs such as grain are highly volatile. It is no-one’s interest for dairies and supermarkets to drive their suppliers into the ground when input costs are high.”

 

Read the whole article here: http://philbennion.org/en/article/2012/601971/supermarkets-must-heed-desperate-midlands-farmers-protests-over-milk-prices

 

MEP Phillip Bennion: Supermarkets must pay a fair price for milk

.

Reproduced from ‘Our Solihull’ site:

.

In a press release received today, energetic and knowledgeable West Midlands Euro MP, Phillip Bennion, says that consumers should follow farmers’ warnings and boycott supermarkets who fail to pay a fair price for local milk. He spoke to local farmers about the crisis yesterday and has been discussing these issues at European level.

British farmers already on the edge of bankruptcy erupted in protests after supermarkets refused to pay more for milk, causing dairies to try and cut the price they paid to farmers. Some supermarkets, notably Morrisons and Co-op, have now raised their wholesale prices paid for milk.

Dr Bennion, an arable farmer from Haunton near Tamworth with a doctorate in agronomy, says: “I can understand the desperation and anger felt by dairy farmers who now have to sell milk for less than the price of bottled water.

.

Ofcom-style supermarket regulator needed with more pro-active regulatory action – the voluntary approach is not enough

.

“The behaviour by some supermarkets screwing down the milk price paid to farmers to impossible levels is outrageous. This is yet more evidence of the need for an effective supermarket regulator, as advocated by the Liberal Democrats for years, especially the Cornish MP Andrew George.

“We now see some supermarkets waking up as people power hits them where it hurts. The combination of farmer protests and consumers switching to the supermarkets that pay a fair price shows what can be achieved by modern communications.”

He added that the recent protests also highlight the need for the government to introduce an Ofcom-style supermarket regulator using more pro-active regulatory action – the voluntary approach is not enough.

Dr Bennion added that dairy farmers in particular needed Cost of Production contracts which allow prices paid to vary:

.

“Supermarkets need continuity of supply and therefore long term contracts. However, dairy farmers’ costs such as grain are highly volatile. It is no-one’s interest for dairies and supermarkets to drive their suppliers into the ground when input costs are high.”

.

STOP PRESS

FFA website: “ASDA miraculously finds another 2ppl to add to its farmgate price for milk.  Although we welcome this further increase which takes their litre price to farmers to 29.5ppl, we still require them to commit that this money will be linked into a cost of production formula so that they can never again pull the price back.”

*

Meeting Phillip Bennion at Obelisk Farm in Warwickshire

 See the white farm in the distance in front of the obelisk

 

Report delayed because of transfer of website.

 

The first issue mentioned by dairy farmer Andrew Hemming at this meeting on 16th January, was compliance: the EU ban on battery cages came into force on January 1 and European Commission figures have revealed that more than 46.7m hens are still in conventional battery cages across the union – 14% of production. The Commission has ‘named and shamed’ 14 member states it says faces legal action for failing to comply with the ban. 

Dairy subjects then took over. Phillip Bennion, who will take up this post as MEP in February, agreed that milk producers are not benefitting when the ‘spot price’ goes up – i.e. the spare milk traded on the day – and spot prices for a perishable commodity fluctuate widely.

He added that food price elasticity is massive and that is why we have CAP to mitigate and ensure farmers’ stability of income.

Andrew, who was recently appointed chairman of Warwickshire NFU, asked Mr Bennion why we are bottom of EU league, commenting that we are weak on getting suitable contracts. 

His answer was that this was due to loss of bargaining strength after the co-operative structure was weakened by UK government decisions years ago. This did not happen on the continent where producer co-ops have more market power. 

The nature of contracts was discussed. This onlooker was surprised to hear that within contracts with supermarkets are stipulations that terms can be varied – which makes them ‘no contract’ in the usual sense of the word as one dairy farmer put it. Phillip Bennion has been working for years on this issue with MP Andrew George. 

Andrew said that though producers must strive to be more competitive, negotiations should ensure that loss leaders are not offered unless supermarket takes the full hit. 

Two co-operatives, entirely owned by British dairy farmers, are working well: Milk Link and First Milk. Both co-operatives reported solid trading results at the end of 2011. They may well achieve prices equal to the Tesco elite group. 

 

The message is “Get involved with farmer-led coops.” 

 

Though Ian Potter was not present, his latest post is relevant so we’ll give him the last word: 

“I genuinely feel GB milk co-ops will become more fashionable because it’s slowly dawning on most switched on dairy farmers that with good management and implementation of the right business model they will be increasingly successful. Non Co-op minded (direct supply) farmers are increasingly starting to see the personal value in the Co-ops. It’s not been an easy birth but I sense they now have a golden opportunity . . . 

Under the new proposal from the European Commission such producer groups will be subject to EU (not UK) competition law. The new regulation will allow dairy farmers to form a group to account for up to 33% of total national milk production, which, for the UK, is around 4.5billion litres. 

With that quantity and the right negotiator it should be easier to collectively negotiate the right contract and milk price. Producers will be able to collectively negotiate with both the supermarkets and their processors. Only then will some normality in the balance of power kick-in, and the never-ending domino effect of retailers squeezing processors, followed by processors squeezing farmers. 

Read the full message here. 

 

This energetic and well-informed MEP could prove to be a great asset in Brussels.

 

*