Farmers suffer at hands of major retailers

SUPERMARKET giant Coles has implemented a series of gimmicky marketing strategies in recent months, and it is an unfortunate fact that it will be farmers who suffer the collateral damage.
Readers of this paper are well aware of Coles’ marketing tactics with hormone growth promotant (HGP) free beef, brutal cost-cutting on milk, and the push to remove sow-stalls for pork.
Several major supermarkets also pre-emptively raised the price of bananas before the impacts of Cyclone Yasi, and we will wait and see if they are true to their word that these rises are all passed through to the farm gate.
With all these issues erupting in supermarkets, farmers are increasingly frustrated with the current duopoly of the major supermarkets and the power they command over food value chains.
For example, the HGP-free beef campaign is a blatant PR exercise and a shallow attempt at differentiating Coles’ beef from other supermarkets and butchers.
I can only assume they are targeting inner-city dwellers with a limited understanding of the beef industry and also of what is sensible from a farm management and environment perspective.
I was in a Coles supermarket recently, and the cashier could not explain what the HGP campaign was about and admitted that it didn’t seem to make much sense.
In effect, Coles has created a problem where there was not one, and then presented a “solution” so they can spruik that to their customers.
This tactic is creating unnecessary hurdles for production. On top of that, if Coles really wanted to a feel-good image for their beef or other products, there are already numerous excellent selling points for Australian grown products within our current world-class farming systems.
These tactics have spilled over into the “because we all buy milk” campaign.
It is true that we all buy milk, but if Queenslanders want to continue to buy fresh milk that is produced in this State, then they need to be aware of the crippling impact that the supermarkets are having with their own-brand milk bottles and cost cutting.
The milk value chain in Queensland is entirely dependent on fresh drinking milk, and the profits generated from branded milk are vital to maintaining value for processors and farmers.
The worst-case scenario if the supermarket price war continues is a dwindling fresh milk supply in Queensland, with consumers left with only supermarket brand milk or UHT and powdered milk.
If Coles was truly clever, the organisation would be promoting and enhancing its relationships with farmers, and using this to its advantage in the next advertising campaign.
Otherwise, they run the risk of alienating not just the farmers who produce the food to stock their shelves, but also the consumers in their stores.
Australians like most people in the world feel a linkage to the farm sector and enjoy a consistent supply of fresh and clean food, and the senior executives at Coles would do well to remember this. We shouldn’t be trying to impose values from other regions onto Australia.
I don’t believe the Australian public want to see the major supermarkets undermining our food producing ability because of short-sighted PR campaigns.
The major supermarkets also have a lot of work ahead of them if they are to repair the mounting distrust they have created with the farm sector.