Government must get tough on supermarkets, says Curry

The government can no longer ignore calls to curb the power of multiple retailers, according to food and farming tsar Sir Don Curry.

Curry, whose Food and Farming Commission criticised the Supermarket Code of Practice as far back as 2002, said he had lost faith in the industry's ability to put its own house in order and said that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had been ineffectual in enforcing the code.

"Trying to establish sustainable trading relationships is a huge challenge and I no longer believe that the industry on its own is going to resolve this issue," he said. "The government is now under considerable pressure from a number of organisations that are deeply concerned about the balance of power in the food chain, but there has been a reluctance to interfere with the OFT."

However, the trade and industry minister Alun Michael told the House of Commons that the OFT could not act without more evidence that supermarkets were abusing their market dominance.

Curry's comments came as the National Farmers' Union (NFU) warned that a widely-backed proposal for a charter to restrain overzealous buyers would collapse if supermarkets, including Tesco and Asda, continued to shun the initiative.

The charter has been publicly endorsed by the OFT and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

The NFU's head of food and farming Robin Tapper said: "We've had support from DEFRA secretary of state Margaret Beckett, the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation and leading players in foodservice like Compass, but the supermarkets are still loathe to sign up."