Helston MP seeks support from shoppers in supermarket campaign (From Falmouth Packet)

Helston MP seeks support from shoppers in supermarket campaign

3:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010

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West Cornwall MP Andrew George, who has led the national call for a regulator to stamp out the bully-boy tactics of large supermarkets, is calling on local farmers, growers, suppliers, and shoppers to make their voices heard during a Government consultation. Earlier this month Ministers at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform announced that Government would look to create a Supermarket Ombudsman to protect the interests of suppliers and consumers and enforce the new Grocery Supply Code of Practice.

Before creating the Ombudsman the Government announced that there would be an open consultation period to establish the nature and structure of the Ombudsman.

The GSCOP came into force last week and will now be included in all contracts governing relationships between retailers and suppliers.

The new code is a result of the findings of an inquiry by the Government’s competition watchdog the Competition Commission.

Mr George has been leading calls for the creation of a Supermarket Ombudsman for over ten years. He chairs the Grocery Market Action Group. The Action Group brings together suppliers’ organisations, NGOs, and academic experts including Friends of the Earth, the British Independent Fruit Growers Association, Traidcraft, the National Farmers’ Union, War on Want, Action Aid, the British Brands Group, the Association of Convenience Stores and others. Mr George said: “After ten years of campaigning and countless inquiries and reports, all of which concluded that a Supermarket Ombudsman was necessary to protect the interests of suppliers and shoppers alike, I welcomed the Government’s announcement earlier this year. The Competition Commission and members of the Grocery Market Action Group campaign have been quite clear about the need for a proactive, independent Ombudsman that would have the power to enforce the new GSCOP and could guarantee mistreated suppliers anonymity.

“There is now a danger, however, that the new consultation will allow the big supermarkets to stall for time whilst trying to weaken powers and principles of the Ombudsman. That is why it is essential that local people – especially farmers, growers, and suppliers - make sure their voices are heard by using the consultation as an opportunity to call for a properly independent, appropriately empowered Ombudsman to protect the interests of suppliers and shoppers alike.”

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