There has been a lot of coverage in the press in Ireland and the UK of late concerning the supermarkets and the ever-increasing influence that they wield – on consumers lifestyles, choices and even freedoms (think data); on farmers as suppliers, on agricultural life in every respect, and even on the policies of government – locally, on the national stage and at EU level too.
The cathedrals of capitalism have been making headlines mostly for the wrong reasons.
Stalker read a factoid in one of the national papers recently – "Tesco's profits per week from bananas is £1million. For every £1 pound spent on the fruit, 1p goes to the growers."
The state of affairs in the mushroom sphere is not quite as bad as that – but it ain't far off it! A reality check for the big multiples is sorely needed. Growers need to be getting a fair cut of the price.
The way the system is loaded against producers at present cannot obtain in the long run – something has to give somewhere and sometime soon at that.
