Video: Farmers block supermarket depots in price protests

Farmers have blocked entrances to supermarket distribution centres during a night of UK-wide protests to demand fairer prices.

A number of supermarket sites across Britain were targeted from 7pm on Friday 13 October as part of coordinated protests organised by Proud to Farm lobby group.

The protests took place outside warehouses belonging to Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco after the campaign was launched by the group on social media platform TikTok.

See also: Former farmer launches ‘Proud to Farm’ mental health campaign

Watch the video and read the report below.

The group announced the sites and post codes of the supermarket depots that they would target and informed local police ahead of the peaceful protests.

Martin Fox, founder of Proud to Farm, quit farming a year ago because of the toll working long hours in tractors alone took on his mental health.

He told Farmers Weekly: “I spoke to a guy yesterday who runs a big farm and his son eventually wants to take on the farm. But his dad told him to go and get an apprenticeship because he does not know if the farm will still be there in a few years.

© MAG/Philip Case

“We cannot live without food. We all need to eat. The great thing about British farming is you can trust our produce. It is top quality and has been farmed to the highest standards.

“It all comes down to farmers being paid fairly for what they produce. Why should farmers be paid below the cost of production?

“Why have the prices on supermarket shelves soared, but farmgate prices have roughly stayed the same? Someone is making a killing, but it isn’t the farmers.”

About a dozen farmers and friends turned out at the protest which was held outside Sainsbury’s depot in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Chris Beach, a local farmworker and agricultural contractor, attended the protest with his son who wants to become a farmer.

“Everyone associates their food with a supermarket. Farmers are in desperate need,” said Mr Beach.

“We don’t always interact with the public. They don’t necessarily associate farms with producing food.

“Our prices have gone up, The supermarkets have put their prices up, but they are not filtering the price rises back down to us.”

Farmworker and contractor Chris Beach and his son at the Basingstoke protest © MAG/Philip Case

Protest at Tesco

Pig farmer Flavian Obeiro, who runs a county council tenant farm in Titchfield, Hampshire, was the only farmer who turned out for the group’s planned protest at Tesco’s distribution centre in Southampton.

Mr Obeiro brought a sign with him, which read: “Every little helps Tesco not farmers.”

He told Farmers Weekly: “As a farmer, we get paid by supermarkets what they think their products should cost, rather than what the product actually costs.

“You can’t go to a supermarket till with a full trolley of food that’s worth £100 and then say you will only pay £70. So, why should we produce food for the nation and get paid what they think they should pay us rather than what the product is actually worth?”

© Flavian Obeiro

Proud to Farm says it could stage bigger protests against supermarket depots in the future and without prior warning.

“Mr Obeiro said: “It has taken only a few weeks to orchestrate people across the country to take action. I know I’m the only one here, but there are other bigger protests in the South West and the North.

“If this was to happen again, there will be more people there because it’s evident that when people come together, we can do something.”

Asked what needs to happen next, Mr Obeiro said supermarkets need to pay farmers a fair price, and they must sit down with the government and farmers to introduce cost of production models which ensure farmers are not paid prices below their costs.

Farmers Weekly has contacted major retailers to request a comment.