Supermarket spin about nurturing family farms is the height of hypocrisy when it comes to their ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ at producers’ expense trading philosophy, a South West dairy farmers’ leader has claimed.

South West NFU dairy board chairman and Devon farmer, Paul Griffith, is calling on MPs across the region to put pressure on the government to speed up the introduction of a grocery code of practice adjudicator.

“At the beginning of August, the government published proposals to establish a grocery code of practice adjudicator to intercede on behalf of those who thought they had been unfairly treated by superstores but we have yet to see the draft bill promised by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,” he said.

“So we are now appealing to all our MPs to help speed up this process because it has been over a decade since the Competition Commission first highlighted the problems that this code is supposed to tackle and, as the figures show only too clearly, it’s a decade in which things have got far worse both in terms of margin distortion in favour of retailers and dairy farmers exiting the industry – over 10,000 in the last ten years.”

Regional director of the NFU in the South West, Melanie Hall, said: “While the retail take from a litre of milk has seen a massive rise from 7.9p to 22.4p over the ten years 1999/2000 to 2009/2010, the average amount paid to farmers has risen by just six pence (from 17.8p to 23.8p) despite their overheads having rocketed in that period meaning that many are struggling to stay in business let alone making the huge investments required to comply with environmental regulations and cope with the economic impact of bovine TB on their businesses.”

Mr Griffith argues, in what he describes as “a wake up call” ahead of any further cuts for producers, that the problem is in no small measure due to poor performance by processor middle men who have found it too convenient to pass on price pain to farmers rather than seeking new market opportunities.

The NFU also says that the price paid to South West dairy farmers is close to the bottom of the European league and is asking the MPs to help make sure the British government backs EU proposals aimed at reducing farmer vulnerability in the food chain.

The dairy crisis, along with bovine TB and the government’s current consultation on dealing with the disease in badgers, will be top of the agenda for NFU president, Peter Kendall, who flies into Cornwall on Thursday to start four days campaigning in the region with a meeting at Truro Market. He will also be speaking at NFU annual meetings in Dorset, Devon and Somerset.