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Competition Commission And Co-ops
February 18 2008
David Cameron has suggested that the supermarkets' stranglehold over farmers could be broken by food co-ops, who buy locally produced, seasonal food direct from suppliers, reducing food miles
Stores are set up by groups of like-minded people who club together to buy in bulk but suppliers are still guaranteed a fair price. Jesse Norman, a Tory activist who chairs the Conservative Co-operative Movement, will launch a book this week, explaining how to set up food co-ops in Britain.
This follows proposals from the Competition Commission for an independent ombudsman to rule on farmers' complaints against supermarkets, amid what farmers describe as a 'culture of fear' generated by the big chains' attempts to keep their costs down. Farmers tell of some supermarkets forcing suppliers to meet the cost of 'buy-one-get-one free' promotions and ditching suppliers who publicly complain.
Farmers' markets are popular, but co-ops take the idea a step further by requiring a community to work together to operate the shop, and can also deliver discounts of up to 40 per cent. As price is a major factor in choice when people shop, this could be a real solution.
I was very concerned that a spokesperson on BBC breakfast a few days ago felt that the supermarkets only solution to farmers receiving higher prices may be to buy all of their produce abroad. To think that these powerful groups could completely destroy our countryside purely because of a few less pounds profit is, quite frankly, terrifying.
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