Supermarkets take consumers and farmers for a ride
KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, says Australia’s farmers are dead right when they claim that supermarkets are ‘ripping off the farmer and they're ripping off the consumer,’[1] and is proposing federal legislation which limits the markup on the price farmers receive and consumers pay to 100 percent.
New South Wales Farmers Horticulture Committee Chairman, Guy Gaeta, told the ABC that supermarkets were pocketing extra profits made through price rises.
"People are paying more for their fruit and veggies at the supermarket, but the farmers aren’t selling them for more, so who's really raising the prices here?"
Bob Katter said banana farmers in his electorate had told him that there was a more than 200 percent markup from the price consumers were paying and the price farmers were getting.
The Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) MP said it had come to the stage in Australia where it must be legislated that supermarkets cannot mark up a product by more than 100 percent.
“The LNP and ALP need to stop pandering to the needs of big multinationals and start helping farmers and consumers,” Mr Katter said.
“We are selling potatoes for 50 cents a kilogram and they are being sold on supermarket shelves for $4 a kilogram. All we want is a fair go, as the cost of production has skyrocketed including freight and fertiliser.
“With a limit of a 100 percent markup either the consumers will get the benefit, or the farmers will get the benefit. But at least someone benefits that is not a massive multi-national company.”
Mr Katter also said the market share of the nation’s two biggest supermarket chains must be limited and called for state and local governments to change zoning laws so the major supermarkets cannot open new stores in retail areas where they already own one.
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[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-05/farmers-accuse-supermarkets-of-price-gouging-on-fresh-produce/101033474
