A former supermarket specialist now bidding to become an MP has called on suppliers to support local markets and “resist the temptation of the big boys”.
Mark Menzies, the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate MP for Fylde who formerly worked for Marks & Spencer, Asda and Morrisons, said the allure of supplying supermarkets could draw in businesses and make them abandon local support.
Speaking during a panel debate at the National Food Markets Conference in Dewsbury, Menzies said: “We have to be mindful when supermarkets gear up towards local produce that they are restricting the number of suppliers to local business.
“Local food was originally considered to be regional but now it means from within just a few miles. We have to make sure supermarkets allow the smaller suppliers to keep supplying local markets and don’t just chase the big boys.”
“My personal view is that it is important that there is localised competition tests as there are areas where on supermarket has 80 per cent market share and smaller players in the market can stake a local foothold.”
Liberal Democrat MP Roger Williams, also on the panel, called for the introduction of an independent grocery ombudsman. He said: “It is a way of protecting the chain as there should be many sellers and many buyers but it isn’t the case at the moment. When you have supermarkets next to markets, the Office of Fair Trading is not doing its job. I see the future of markets as being as retailers of specialist products, rather than commodities. We do need an ombudsman and it’s up to the department for business, innovation and skills to act now, before the issue is delayed by a general election.”
Menzies also said public sector procurement had a big part to play in supporting markets: “The public sector needs to play a bigger role in food procurement. Traders are often also wholesalers or could be and the public sector has found huge advantages from local food when they have used it and found cost savings in doing so, so they can support them in this way.”
Sarah Richardson, corporate partnership manager for the Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and Humber, responded from the floor: “We held a Meet the Buyer event with 30 NHS staff which was successful. Local sourcing is an opportunity to move on and develop so that local products reach retail markets. A lot of our artisan producers supply farmers markets and consumer shows but don’t even think of retail markets.”
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