PAYING the PRICE
THIS HOW LITTLE THE WORLD'S FARMERS EARN FROM YOUR FOOD PURCHASES
SUPERMARKETS are squeezing millions out of the poorest farmers and workers in their supply chains. That’s according to a new report published by Oxfam, which looked at ending human suffering in supermarket supply chains.
UK supermarkets - including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Aldi and Lidl - receive nearly 10 times more of the checkout prices than the small-scale farmers and workers who produce them. Supermarkets take 52.8 per cent of the checkout price, compared to smallscale farmers and workers who get just 5.7 per cent in comparison. It means that farmers and workers are often making mere pennies from supermarkets selling their products. A packet of two avocados, for example, costs around £2.50 meaning a supermarket takes around £1.32 for every packet sold. Small-scale farmers and workers, meanwhile, see just 14p.
In fact, the amount small-scale farmers and workers earn has dwindled over time. Although still a small amount, workers earned 7.6 per cent in 1996. That had fallen to 7.2 per cent in 2000. It means that people who produce the foods we buy from UK supermarkets might well be going hungry themselves.
The report found that Kenyan workers who grow green beans earn just 41 per cent of their country’s living wage. Rice farmers in Thailand earn 56 per cent of the living wage there, and orange juice farmers in Brazil make just 58 per cent of their living wage.
Matthew Spencer, policy director at Oxfam GB said: “It’s shocking that so many of the farmers and workers producing food for our supermarket shelves are going hungry themselves.
“Our biggest supermarkets are squeezing the price they pay their suppliers, resulting in huge, hidden suffering amongst the women and men who supply our food and trapping them in poverty.
“Global businesses can help lift millions of people out of poverty, but the food industry currently rewards shareholder wealth over the work of millions of women and men with supermarkets ignoring the hidden suffering behind their food supply chains. Whencompanies get serious about supporting decent work they can help transform lives in some of the poorest parts of the world.” A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium said: “Improving equality is at the heart of the British Retail Consortium’s Better Retail Better World campaign and our members have made a number of commitments to improve the livelihoods of people working in our supply chains and to increase the transparency of those efforts. “Indeed, as Oxfam’s research shows, the UK retail industry is one of the most progressive in this area globally. The Oxfam investigation demonstrates how complex these challenges of respecting human rights in supply chains are and we welcome the recommendations set out in this report.”