The merger of supermarket giants Asda and Sainsbury’s has sent alarm bells ringing in farming circles.
Both the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) and the National Sheep Association (NSA) have urged caution over the plans and expressed concern about the retailers’ objective to lower prices by around 10%.
NFUS chief executive Scott Walker said: “If allowed to proceed, this merger will concentrate a lot of retailer power into the hands of one company.”
He said aspirations to reduce prices by 10% would set alarm bells ringing, not just for primary producers, but for other parts of the supply chain.
Mr Walker added: “If the merger goes ahead, there is an opportunity here for potentially the biggest player in the UK’s retail sector to put in place a system of responsible sourcing and to end the spectre of Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs) by supermarkets that blights the sector by delivering a fair share of risk and reward all the way back to the farm gate.”
“If it goes ahead, then farmers and shoppers will also want to see the strongest commitment from the new retailer to sourcing more Scottish and UK produced food than they currently do.”
He said data from the union’s shelfwatch, where secret shoppers look at supermarket offerings of lamb, pork and bacon, showed that both Asda and Sainsbury’s could be doing much more to support the nation’s primary producers.
And NSA chief executive, Phil Stocker, said he was angered by promises of reduced prices.
He said: “This loss of competition in the marketplace, and an increased imbalance in the supply chain, cannot be in the long term interests of food producers, nor in my mind of society at large.
“It may result in reduced prices, but all this will lead to is less realisation of the value of food and a host of things being lost that may be invisible today but will become very visible at some stage in the future.
“If we end up putting pressure on the bulk of our sheep farming families and businesses we will end up with a very different countryside and rural community – and the danger is that it won’t be noticed until it is lost.”