Farmers 'cannot be in the frontline of retail war', IFA warns

Tim Cullinan has warned that if retailers "want to engage in combat for customers, it cannot be at the expense of farmers and producers". 

IFA president Tim Cullinan said that targeting fresh food is "just too easy an option" that retailers must avoid.

Irish Farmers' Association president Tim Cullinan has said that farmers would be "very sceptical" of retailers "claiming to champion consumers with lower prices".

Mr Cullinan has warned that if retailers "want to engage in combat for customers, it cannot be at the expense of farmers and producers". 

"The idea that primary producers can afford to take a lower price flies in the face of higher input costs. The food chain cannot survive if relentless pressure is piled on those who produce the food," he said.

It costs money to deliver quality food to supermarket shelves. 

"This has to be recognised by giving a fair margin to those who put in the work and investment on the ground. Pretending that it can be done for less is not serving anybody."

'Too easy an option'

Mr Cullinan said that targeting fresh food is "just too easy an option" that retailers must avoid.

"Retailers know that consumers go shopping for food, but farmers and producers cannot be in the frontline of another retail war," he said.

Retailers cannot use their dominant position in the food chain to reduce farmers' margins while protecting their own. 

"This imbalance in power in our food supply chain is something that the new Agri-Food Regulator must investigate and act upon."

Aldi has today announced reductions in the prices of several goods, including meat products and yoghurts.

In December, it also cut the prices of 170 seasonal products, but said at the time this would have "no impact" on the prices paid to producers and suppliers.

Margins

The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association Denis Drennan has said that the "onus is firmly on the newly established food price regulatory office to verify absolutely that any reductions in price introduced by supermarkets are funded out of their own margin".

Mr Drennan said that farmers have "absolutely no issue with supermarkets reducing their own margins".

However - farmers "would not and could not accept a situation" where they are "manoeuvred into having their margins cut so that they ended up subsidising rounds of competing price cuts by retail corporations".