Farmers urged to use their mart to take back control

The rise in direct marketing contracts for livestock being sold to supermarket chains is being challenged by those in charge of Scotland’s auction marts.

Claiming that what they term the“insidious use of closed- door deals” is a deliberate device to shield major buyers from the “transparency and honesty that can only be guaranteed in the livestock auction ring ”, the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) yesterday launched a campaign to reverse the continued proliferation of direct sale contracts.

The organisation claimed that the use of such contracts often saw additional stipulations made on stock–including limitations on the number of movements for cattle and added that such demands often amounted to nothing more than a “deliberate attempt to avoid price scrutiny in the ring”

IA AS president, Scott Donald son, said supermarkets were pushing producers down this road at the very time when farmers needed to ensure that they were receiving a fair and transparent price for their produce:

“Access to a fair pricing regime, as delivered by the network of livestock markets that we represent, is the very cornerstone of fair farming practice. We want to work with supermarkets as important and valued stakeholders – but now is the time for this evasion on price to end.”

Donaldson said the campaign came after a series of complaints received from farmers who had found themselves short-changed by direct contracts – particularly at times when shortterm market fluctuations had been avoided by the major buyers.

He said that while there had been a gradual rise in the use of direct contracts over the past decade, the movement had a cc el erate dover the last twelve months–with a notice able absence of buyers representing supermarket suppliers attending prime sheep auction rings across the country.

The“Use your mart” campaign, said Donaldson, was urging farmers to take back control and demand transparency in pricing by selling through the ring:

“You would almost think that the UK’S major retailers were seeking to deliberately avoid fair and transparent pricing in our food chain.”

Donaldson said that livestock markets had been the backbone of Scottish live- stock production for over 100 years, ensuring that at each and ever y stage the buyer and seller received the best price possible in the most transparent of environments - a public auction.

“We know that the undermining of rural livestock markets by directly contracted arrangements is a real threat to agricultural activity in some of the most remote and fragile areas of Scotland. Once rural markets close, they remove a vital part of the support network for viable agricultural activity, and such closures look to be irreversible,” he added.

“Direct contracts remove transparency from the system, preventing a public process of establishing a fair price as stock moves through the supply chain.”

*A spokesman for a leading supermarket chain defended the direct contract approach, stating:

“It is only through building strong partnerships that we are able to provide the affordable and sustainable products our customers expect.”