 |
Nick Harvey MPStanding up for North Devon since 1992 |
 |
The growing power of the supermarkets
Supermarkets hold enormous power in the UK with Tesco alone making profits of £228,000 an hour. This supermarket revolution has undoubtedly brought many benefits. These include in-store variety, lower prices, cleanliness, efficiency, and even convenience meals.
Yet as the grocery market consolidates more and more, the negative consequences of supermarket power have become increasingly apparent. The death of many high streets and rural communities has often been accelerated by growing supermarket dominance.
Supermarkets have also undoubtedly contributed to economic hardship among small producers, such as farmers, and the climate menace of food miles
In 2007, the grocery market was worth £128.2bn, an increase of 4% on 2006, and representing 12.7% of all household spending in the UK. £88 billion (or nearly 75%) of these sales occurred in large stores (larger than 280 square metres).
Most of these 2,000 stores are supermarkets of which around 1,700 are operated by the Big Four (Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons).
I and my Lib Dem colleagues have long been ahead of the curve in addressing the negative consequences of supermarket power. My colleague Colin Breed (SE Cornwall) has led calls for the Office of Fair Trading to control their powers.
We are pressing for local communities and councils to have greater powers to support local shops and the local economy.
We also want to see a tougher, legally-binding supermarket "code" effective for the whole food chain from farm to fork, to ensure all supermarkets do not exploit suppliers, farmers or consumers.
And we want to see the establishment of a Food Trade Inspector with powers to investigate abuse of market power.
Unfortunately, the Government remains wedded to the clearly failing voluntary supermarket Code of Practice. A culture of fear of supermarket "clout" still pervades. Since the Code of Practice was introduced in 2000, there have been no complaints by suppliers or producers and three-quarters of suppliers fear complaining.
I am rather disappointed that the Conservatives don't share our desire to tackle growing supermarket power. David Cameron has simply said "The competition authorities are there for a purpose. They have the authority and the powers. They should feel empowered to act."
Key Statistics
- Between 1965 and 1990, 15% of small rural settlements experienced the closure of their last general store or food shop.
- Between 1991 and 1997 a total of 4,000 food shops closed in rural areas.
- From 1997-2002, 50 specialised stores such as butchers, fishmongers and newsagents closed every week across the UK
- Since 1995, retail prices for milk have stayed static but farm-gate prices have dropped by a third; at the same time, the number of dairy holdings has halved.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats
-
Help out or donate
-
Tell us what you think