Alliance backs food supply chain fairness

A new bill aimed at reforming Britain's food supply chain and procurement practices developed with Countryside Alliance assistance was introduced in Parliament yesterday, with broad cross-party support. 

Alistair Carmichael MP introduced his Food Products (Market Regulation and Public Procurement) Bill, highlighting the urgent need to address power imbalances in Britain's food supply chain and support domestic producers. The Bill aims to enhance the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), coordinate between the GCA and the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator, improve public procurement of British food products and reform food labelling practices. 

In his speech, Mr Carmichael characterised the state of British farming as critical, noting that real incomes for farmers have stagnated over the past 50 years. He shared the example of farmers in his constituency earning a mere 0.7% net profit on their capital, which he pointed out was actually better than the national average of 0.5%. 

“This cannot go on,” Mr Carmichael told the House:  

“Farmers are seeing a rapid withdrawal of funding support... Without direct and meaningful intervention, we risk losing domestic food production and any notion of food security.” 

The Countryside Alliance has welcomed the Bill, having helped develop it. We actively campaign on food procurement issues, seeking to maximize opportunities for British farmers and food producers to access public procurement contracts. 

Mr Carmichael highlighted significant limitations of the current Groceries Code Adjudicator, whose fewer than 10 staff are all on secondment from elsewhere in the public sector:  

“To expect an operation of that size to take on some of the largest retail businesses in the country is laughable.” 

He cited alarming statistics from the GCA’s annual survey, revealing that 42% of suppliers would not raise issues because they feared retailer retaliation. He shared the story of a Brussels sprouts supplier who invested £400,000 in a packing facility based on supermarket commitments, only to be dropped without warning. 

Mr Carmichael also warned against supermarkets embarking on price wars at farmers’ expense, referencing a Daily Telegraph report that ASDA was threatening such a strategy. He cautioned, “Any supermarket that thinks it can rebuild its balance sheet on the back of Britain's farmers might find itself in front of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee,” which he chairs. 

Mr Carmichael’s office co-ordinated a parliamentary drop-in session to mark the introduction and help build support. The Countryside Alliance attended and shared a briefing with MPs. We noted our ongoing work surveying local authorities about their policies on procuring British food. Initial findings suggest most local authorities have no policies in place and do not monitor the origins of their procured food. 

We also highlighted our campaign against lobbying by the “plant-based” movement of councils to remove meat and dairy from catering menus. As an alternative, the Alliance has successfully encouraged 11 councils across the UK to pass motions committing to procure more British and, ideally, local food. 

Food labelling is another focus of the bill. The Countryside Alliance has long campaigned on this issue, highlighting cases where imported meat processed in the UK can be labelled as British. Clear, transparent labelling empowers the consumer, ensures British farmers are not competing in an unfair market and can drive up animal welfare. 

The Bill has garnered support from MPs across political parties, including Liberal Democrat, Labour, Conservative, Plaid Cymru, SNP, Green and Democratic Unionist MPs. It also has backing from prominent rural organisations including farming unions, the Country Land and Business Association, the Tenant Farmers Association and Scottish Land and Estates along with us. 

“If we want to keep farming communities alive for generations to come,” Mr Carmichael concluded, “we need to act now to make it happen.”