Supermarkets’ victims

Sustain, the Fairtrade Foundation, Traidcraft, Feedback and the National Farmers Union have joined forces to call for the Groceries Code Adjudicator remit to extend to farmers, to protect them from unfair trading practices by supermarkets.

Tesco fails suppliers – Britain’s largest supermarket breached a legally binding Code to protect groceries suppliers

Unfair trading practices

The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) published the results of a major investigation into the high-street supermarket Tesco on 26 January 2016.

The GCA found that Tesco had breached the Groceries Supply Code of Practice by delaying payments to suppliers and requiring payments for better positioning of products. These are both considered to be unfair trading practices.

Extending protection

Farming and food waste organisations joined forces with the Conservative MP Julian Sturdy MP to write an open letter, published in The Telegraph, calling for the GCA’s protection to extend to farmers.

Currently, the GCA’s protection covers only ‘first tier’ suppliers, which does not include the majority of farmers whose produce is sold on supermarket shelves, often as an ingredient in other products.

The open letter

The Groceries Code Adjudicator uncovered Tesco’s failure to pay its suppliers properly, exposing how the supermarket has been able to abuse its market position. In the light of these findings, we welcome Tesco’s contrition and public commitment to change further the way it works with its supply base.