North Yorkshire farmers warn of "perfect storm" of problems
They're calling for tougher laws to make sure they get a fair deal from supermarkets
Parliament will debate a petition today calling for tougher laws to ensure supermarkets act fairly when buying produce from British farmers – with claims the industry is "on its knees".
The Get Fair About Farming campaign has received more than 100,000 signatures - with a debate in the Commons scheduled later.
It wants an amendment made to the Grocery Supply Code of Conduct to require retailers to "buy what they agreed to buy, pay what they agreed to pay and pay on time".
"We also need to make sure that we can afford to pay our bills and take care of our family"
Sam Dilcock is a vegetable grower in Selby and says the industry is facing a perfect storm of problems: "You can’t get the staff, you cannot get the fair contracts to allow you to invest and expand your business, we are sort of circling the plug hole if you like at the moment as food producers.
He says it's not just the relationship with supermarkets that is causing problems: "We’ve been looking out the window for months watching it rain and rain and rain. The land is in such a terrible state, we've so many things to deal with out there, but so much good could be done by paying the fair and real price for the food that we all need."
"It’s not just the pressures of the income coming in and the bills going out. We’re also under greater pressure to deliver for the environment as well and quite simply farmers that are in the red cannot look after what’s in the green. We also need to make sure that we can afford to pay our bills and take care of our family and are not in a situation where smaller farms are being sold out into bigger growers and we lose these vital producers out of the industry altogether."
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) - which represents supermarkets - says it is "not true" that retailers do not provide long-term financial security to farmers.
"Supermarkets have very, very long-standing relationships with their direct suppliers," he said.
"It may be that the farmers don't always have a contract with the supermarket directly, because they may go through a middleman. That can be a processor, it could be a packer, but those packers and processors are actually quite large businesses, and most of those would have had long-term relationships with supermarkets over the last decade or so."
DEFRA has now launched a public consultation and says it is working with farmers to ensure they get a "fair price for their products".