The Irish Farmers Association has launched its Christmas Food Producers’ campaign, warning retailers off discounting fresh produce.
Running into the two biggest shopping weekends of the year, IFA President Joe Healy has warned against discounting produce in the run-up to Christmas.
“Using farm produce as a tool to drive footfall undermines Irish production and the financial viability of specialist growers and producers,” Healy said.
“Farmers have invested hugely in their businesses to ensure sufficient supplies of fresh Irish produce for Christmas. Retailers have to respect this investment.”
A Tough Year
Launching the campaign, Healy said that this year has been ‘a very tough year’ for farmers, with significant extra costs because of the drought conditions during the summer.
“At the time, retailers supported growers because they understood the pressures that existed. We are asking for retailers to show similar backing between now & Christmas,” he continued.
“Let’s remember that when Ireland was hit by a snowstorm last March, supermarket shelves immediately ran out of milk and bread – two products that Irish consumers expect to be available.”
He also took the opportunity to denounce the ‘unsustainable’ discounting of fresh milk by retailers, something the group has continuously highlighted.
He added that the Grocery Goods regulations introduced in 2016 ‘totally neglected to address unsustainable discounting’, and he re-iterated IFA’s call on the Enterprise Minister Heather Humphreys to introduce an independent retail regulator.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
