Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to support farmers in obtaining fair production contracts with supermarkets.

George Eustice

The Government introduced the Groceries Code Adjudicator so farmers receive fair contracting, adherence to the code, from supermarkets.

We are also pursuing a host of measures, including better branding and labelling in supermarkets, to improve the stability of the industry and help farming businesses to become more resilient and take advantage of the growing demand for British food both at home and overseas.

I have recently spoken to all the major supermarkets to encourage them to source more British produce, to promote British produce at point of sale and to consider greater use of aligned contracts linked to cost of production.