Supermarkets rejecting “ugly” fruit as “unmarketable” must be investigated, especially when farmers are struggling to harvest their crops following the poor summer weather.
This is the view of Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesperson and Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív who is calling on the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to take action.
According to Dep Ó Cuív, ‘ugly’ food, such as irregularly shaped potatoes, etc, is being rejected.
“This practice by supermarkets of rejecting good food on aesthetic grounds rather than on nutritional grounds is morally wrong,” he said. “Many farmers fear the supermarket chains and are not willing to confirm how wide spread these practices are.”
Dep Ó Cuív also pointed out that this policy would make as much as 25 per cent of farmers produce unmarketable and would increases the cost of food as farmers “have to get higher prices for their acceptable produce to make ends meet”.
Dep Ó Cuív has also accused supermarket chains of “using their muscle to squeeze” milk suppliers and force them into “uneconomic production”.
The Connemara TD wants Minister Coveney to ensure “the strong bargaining position of the major supermarket chains is not used unfairly in squeezing milk producers and rejecting produce from farmers”.
He will be calling on the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture to examine these issues. He also wants to see the committee look into establishing a supermarket ombudsman to look into the practices of supermarkets and to ascertain if they are in breach of Irish and European competition law.
