Anger growing in the dairy sector at supermarkets' 'bullying power'

Willie Campbell, a former convenor of NFU Scotland's milk committee and a dairy producer from Ayrshire, said it did not matter how much more efficient he became, the supermarkets squeezed the milk price and took the benefit.

"We need to attack the supermarkets," he said after listening to both cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead and NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren complain about the inequalities within the milk supply chain.

Another long-term milk producer, Robert McIntyre from Bute, said he had his back to the wall while the supermarkets were making billions.

He asked Lochhead if there was any way the big retailers' grip on the industry could be slackened.

And Jim Brown, of Airdrie, who after half a century milking cows sold his dairy herd four years ago, believed the present imbalance in the milk chain was down to the loss of the former milk marketing board which helped ensure level returns

There was no way McLaren would countenance any return to regulatory controls such as those held by the former statutory boards but he wanted to see the UK appoint an "adjudicator with teeth" so that action could be taken against supermarkets that abused their strength in the market place.

McLaren said three years ago that he believed the future in ensuring fairness in the supply chain lay in direct agreements between supermarkets and producer groups and he had praised the commitment of Tesco to such an agreement.

But his confidence in this system had slipped and he claimed yesterday that producers not in the group but supplying Tesco were now in effect subsidising their producers' group.

McLaren was not impressed with the current battle on the high street, describing farmers being used as a commercial football "being kicked about by retailers seeking to cut each others' throats in order to secure more customers in their stores".

Although no names were named, McLaren said the union had been speaking to suppliers and the level of pressure they were facing over prices was "extraordinary and deeply damaging".

"They are subject to blatant clear anti-competitive practices driven by greed and an arrogant wielding of power by their big supermarket customers."

Lochhead also wanted to see an independent adjudicator appointed to investigate when supermarkets used their buying power to reduce producers' prices and said he would raise the issue later this week when he met UK minister Jim Paice as this is not a devolved matter.

Lochhead admitted he was disappointed that only one of the major multiple retailers, Morrisons, will this morning attend a dairy industry meeting.

He also reminded those at the seminar that while everyone seemed to enjoy a bit of "supermarket bashing" these major companies contributed a great deal to the Scottish economy