06 January 2010 - Caroline Lucas welcomes focus on destructive supermarket monopolies, but warns new regulator needs real teeth to challenge big business

 

The Green party leader and South East Green Euro-MP today warned that the Tories’ proposed ‘supermarket ombudsman’ would lack the teeth to effectively challenge the damaging practices of the big supermarkets.

 

Caroline Lucas, an experienced campaigner on sustainable food and farming, has led a campaign in the European Parliament for a Commission investigation into supermarket dominance, in response to increasing concern over the practices of major food retailers – calling for tough new rules to protect producers, small businesses, rural economies and the environment.

 

Commenting on Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert’s proposal for a supermarket ombudsman, Caroline Lucas said:

 

“It’s good to see that the Tories are finally recognising that something must be done about the EU’s destructive supermarket monopolies. The amount of power wielded by the big supermarkets is simply unacceptable and threatens the future of our agriculture industry.

 

“But while the Tory proposal is a step in the right direction, the plans revealed so far don’t show any sign that a new regulatory body would have real power to challenge the big business practices that dominate food retail.

 

"In particular, the ombudsman must have the power to be proactive, demanding documentations from the superstores showing how much they pay and how much they charge.  We know from our research at EU level that the system won’t work if it relies on farmers to come forward, since many have become so dependent on supermarkets for their survival that they dare not speak out against them for fear of being delisted."

 

She continued: “Moreover, without a commitment to fundamentally changing the system of supermarket monopolies, a supermarket ombudsman would be likely to be toothless. As long as supermarkets are allowed to engage in price wars, they will continue to lower the prices they are prepared to pay for produce, and the profit margins for farmers in the UK will become increasingly untenable.

 

“It has been clear for decades that the industrialised food system, driven in part by the ‘pile ‘em high’ supermarket ethos, is completely unsustainable. It wreaks havoc on the natural world, harms local economies and small scale producers – and puts us at an ever increasing risk of food insecurity.”

 

Dr Lucas’s 2007 Written Declaration (like an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons) calling for a European Commission investigation into the dominance of the big supermarkets gained overwhelming support from fellow MEPs.