Excessive supermarket power must be tamed alongside farm policy – George A leading MP campaigner to protect farmers and growers from supermarket ‘bully boys’ has wel

A leading MP campaigner to protect farmers and growers from supermarket ‘bully boys’ has welcomed today’s Government announcement that it will move the prime fair-trade regulator to work alongside its farming policy in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). 

Andrew George – MP for the West Cornwall & Isles of Scilly constituency of St Ives – was a previous DEFRA lead for the Liberal Democrats and Chaired the national Grocery Market Action Group (GMAG) – who’s members included the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Friends of the Earth, Traidcraft, CLA, ActionAid, British Fruit Growers’ Association, and Scottish NFU – between 2005 and 2015.  

The GMAG successfully campaigned to persuade the then Competition Commission to hold a comprehensive Inquiry into supermarket buying and supply chain practices; and which ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Grocery Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) and creation of the supermarket regulator (Grocery Code Adjudicator – GCA) in 2013. 

However, Mr George has argued that the GCA has been underfunded, dependant on government secondments and has failed to take effective action to curtail the anti-competitive practices. Mr George has therefore pressed government ministers to amalgamate the GCA with the recently formed Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA) to combat fragmentation of effort and to beef it up. He published a cross-party parliamentary motion last summer and has led a cross-party group of MPs pressing for this change. 

Mr George said, “I welcome today’s news. Many MPs from across all parties recognise that supermarkets still abuse their market muscle in the supply chain. For more than a decade since the GCA was created, supermarkets have found not especially creative ways of navigating their way past the regulation. So, we are calling on the Government to act and give the regulator the teeth and funds it needs to be effective.”