Farming groups rally round Proud to Farm push for fair prices

Farming organisations have united around calls for fair farmgate prices following targeted protests against supermarket depots, co-ordinated by the Proud to Farm group.

The Landworkers’ Alliance, Sustain, Save British Bacon, NI Farmers For Action, Lancashire Lamb Boxes and the Kenyan Pig Farmer are among those who have given their support to the campaign lobbying supermarkets to pay farmers fairer prices for their produce.

The backing follows a wave of protests against supermarket depots, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons, which were held across the UK on Friday 13 October.

See also: Video: Farmers block supermarket depots in price protests

Farmers used tractors and 4x4s to block six supermarket depots, and a further three sites were also targeted.

The direct action followed a post by Proud to Farm on TikTok, which called for farmers to target retailers to demand fairer prices.

Although it sympathises with the issues, the NFU said it could not support this type of protest – blocking supermarket depots.

Martin Fox, the founder of Proud to Farm, said: “We’re grateful to the farmers and their families who turned out to support our protests at such short notice.

“We are currently in discussions with a number of other farming organisations about how we move forward.

“It is clear that we have support of farmers for our drive for fair prices for farmers’ produce.

“We are also determined to create a dialogue with the big retailers and move towards a fairer outcome for British farmers to secure a more sustainable future for their businesses.”

William Taylor, Northern Ireland Farmers For Action co-ordinator, said: “Farmers for Action are always in favour of farming organisations such as Proud to Farm and young people coming together to lobby for fair farmgate prices.

“In addition, we would like to see a copy of the Northern Ireland Farm Welfare Bill extended right across the UK.

“The bill, if enacted when Stormont resits, would legally mean that family farmers in Northern Ireland would have to be paid a minimum of the true cost of production, inflation-linked, plus a margin.

“This would have a positive outcome for farmers across the UK.”

Retailers’ response

Retailers told Farmers Weekly they were working hard to back British farmers.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We are proud of our 150-year history of supporting British farmers and source British as much as we possibly can. Over the last year Sainsbury’s has paid over £66m of support to British farmers.

“Our long-term relationships with suppliers also allow us to listen and respond to the challenges British farmers are facing.

“Our dairy development group is a great example of this. We recently announced that dairy farmers supplying Sainsbury’s with milk will be paid more, thanks to a £6m annual investment which we made to support farms for the future.”

An Asda spokesman said: “We have positive long-standing relationships with our network of British farmers spanning decades.

“We have clear standards and processes for having constructive discussions around the prices that we pay to all of our suppliers, and we recognise the importance of sustainable long-term buying agreements to benefit our customers as well as our suppliers.”