Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones | I'm on your side

This week Nick Herbert, the Shadow Environment Secretary, announced a Conservative pledge for a supermarket ombudsman to help settle disputes between supermarkets and farmers.  I am all in favour. 

Nick Herbert, the Shadow Environment Secretary, explained that an ombudsman could stop supermarkets’ practice of “retrospective discounting”, where supermarkets go back to farmers and say they want to drive down prices that have already been agreed.  The Competition Commission recommended an ombudsman in April 2008, yet the current government have failed to implement this recommendation. 

I do believe supermarkets could do a huge amount more to support British farming and help to bridge the gap in understanding between food and farming.

One aspect of the supermarkets ability to control their costs is by having as few suppliers as possible. This in itself causes problems when it comes to supporting small local suppliers. Why buy one line of cheese from one small producer, when they can buy ten lines from just one of the multi national companies? By supermarkets not having the infrastructure to support small suppliers, it means that small suppliers have very few outlets available to them who can give them the volume they need to create a viable business. 

I very much hope that an ombudsman would be able to help resolve this and give greater opportunities to local farmers.  The benefits of local produce on the environment are clear as goods travel less far before reaching the consumer, thereby reducing our groceries carbon footprint. 

I also hope as part of the ombudsman’s plans for labelling there will be carbon information on packs so the consumer is aware of the cost to the environment of each of the products they have purchased. I would like to see a system where a product is not only measured for value for money, but also value to the environment.”