FARMERS have been pressing the UK government to introduce a "supermarket ombudsman" for many months, but to no avail.
The multiples, in turn, claim the Competition Commission is all that is required in terms of having a regulatory organisation.
In the Republic of Ireland, feelings are running high at the perceived power of supermarkets and the treatment meted ou
t to producers. Hundreds of farmers gathered earlier this week outside a distribution centre at Kilock, County Kildare, protesting at falling farm incomes.
Padraig Walshe, the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, said: "This retail price war is already impacting negatively on farm incomes.
"Unless the government takes immediate action to address this issue and improve our competitiveness, it will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs in the food processing sector.
"The supermarket bosses would have consumers believe that the price reductions are coming from the supermarkets' own bottom line. They are fooling nobody. The reality is that it's off the backs of Irish farmers and Irish jobs."
Competition between supermarkets is also a fact of life throughout the UK, but it appears to be even more intense in Ireland, where producer prices for lamb have fallen by more than 20 per cent in the past month. Prices in Ireland are supposed to be monitored by the National Consumer Agency (NCA), but Walshe wants to see that organisation closed down, claiming that it is ineffective.
He said: "The NCA is encouraging and applauding the pillaging of jobs and farm incomes by the retail multiples. They make no allowance for quality, economic activity or employment."
Walshe's final remarks will certainly strike a chord with UK farmers.
He said: "We must have a retail code of practice and a supermarket ombudsman. The code must include a ban on below-cost selling of food and ensure that there is equity and transparency in the share-out of the consumer price."
