Last week at Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs questions, I raised the issue of Tesco being accused of delaying payments to farmers.
I said that farmers in Worcestershire had complained to me about supermarkets being slow to pay them for their produce and highlighted the findings of the Groceries Code Adjudicator report which said that Tesco had breached the code of practice. I asked the minister what the government was doing to ensure that further breaches did not occur.
The Grocery Code Adjudicator (who’s role is to oversee the relationship between supermarkets and their suppliers) recently instructed Tesco to introduce significant changes to practices and systems after finding Britain’s largest supermarket seriously breached a legally-binding Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the Code) to protect groceries suppliers.
The Adjudicator was concerned about three key issues: Tesco making unilateral deductions from suppliers; the length of time taken to pay money due to suppliers; and in some cases, an intentional delay in paying suppliers.
Replying to the question, George Eustice MP, Minister of State at DEFRA, said:
“As my honourable friend will be aware, we introduced regulations at the end of the previous Parliament to make it possible for the Groceries Code Adjudicator to levy fines against retailers that breach the code. The action that she took against Tesco was evidence that that is starting to work, and that she is beginning to pick up on and deal with bad practice. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will shortly be leading a review of the role of and our approach to the Groceries Code Adjudicator. As part of that, we will be looking at ways in which we might be able to improve the code.”
This is an important issue and one that has been raised many times by farmers and suppliers in my constituency. Of course as consumers, we want to keep household expenditure low and welcome low supermarket pricing, but a balance must also be struck that ensures a fair deal for suppliers. Supermarkets must operate fairly and not at the detriment of supplier’s livelihoods.