Imminent supermarket price war – Farmers ask whether food price reductions have been sustainability-tested?

Addressing the reports of an imminent supermarket price war with one corporate retailer apparently set to announce reductions of 10% on 700 products, ICMSA President, Pat McCormack, said that both farmers and all those who profess themselves to be alarmed by the current climate crisis are entitled to wonder whether all these hundreds of reductions have been sustainability-tested? Mr. McCormack said that “as usual” the price of food was deemed to be a matter for the supermarkets alone with no place or room for the longer-term considerations of sustainability and environmental consequences.  He noted that despite the direct line between sustainable food production and environmental welfare – the sole basis on which Irish farming and agri-food was now officially evaluated – there was the usual “deafening silence” from the raft of state and state-supported agencies and quangos all ostensibly dedicated to environmental protection. Why did these groups have absolutely nothing to say on a decision by the supermarkets that did not even pretend to reference sustainability?

Mr. McCormack said it was high time to ask publicly why sustainability was to be the governing principle for farmers in rural Ireland, but a matter of choice or public relations for the corporate retailers – the most powerful link in the food-supply chain?

Ends    8 June 2023

Pat McCormack, 087-7608958

President, ICMSA