Here’s a fascinating story from BBC Online about supermarkets and the price of dairy products:
Supermarkets admit milk price fix
Supermarket firms Sainsbury’s and Asda have admitted that they were part of a dairy price-fixing group that earned about £270m extra from shoppers.
The supermarkets, along with a number of dairy firms, have agreed to pay fines totalling some £116m after an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) probe. Cases against Tesco and Morrisons will continue after no deal was struck.
The OFT said that in-store prices went up after the collusion, but the amount received by farmers did not increase. However, the firms insist that the farm gate price paid for milk did rise and that they were not ripping off customers. Read full story here…
Many people now have concerns about the sourcing and distribution of their food. More and more are seeking alternatives to the major supermarkets, such as co-operatives, farmers’ markets or local distribution networks.
Findings like this one from the OFT can only serve to crystallise these concerns…
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