Stores ‘squeezing price paid to suppliers’

UK supermarkets are increasingly squeezing the price they pay to the poorest farmers and workers in their supply chains, according to a report by Oxfam.

The charity’s Ripe For Change report claims supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Aldi and Lidl are squeezing payments to their suppliers, with “less and less” of the price paid at the till reaching small-scale farmers and workers who produce the food.

Oxfam said none of the food supply chains it analysed enabled people to earn enough for even a basic standard of living. In some cases, like Indian tea and Kenyan green beans, workers were earning less than half the amount they needed to “get by”.

The report also claimed that women face routine discrimination, often providing most of the labour for the lowest wages.

Across 12 common products, including tea, orange juice and bananas, UK supermarkets receive almost 10 times more of the checkout price than the small-scale farmers and workers who produce them, Oxfam’s analysis found. The report includes a scorecard analysis of the six biggest supermarkets in the UK based on international standards and recognised good practice on human and labour rights, with scores ranging from just 1% for Aldi to 23% for Tesco.

Matthew Spencer, director of policy for Oxfam GB, said: “It’s shocking that so many of the farmers and workers producing food for our supermarket shelves are going hungry themselves.”