The Competition Commission's (CC) findings hold up a green light to greater mass production of Britain's food and drink and yet more giant supermarkets, says the national director of the Guild of Fine Food.

The Guild of Fine Food is one of many organisations to criticise the CC's provisional report on the grocery market since it was published on Wednesday, October 31. The organisation has said that the findings place the nation’s food culture in jeopardy and offer little hope for Britain’s independent food retailers, small food producers or farmers.

Farrand is astounded the CC is unable to appreciate the link between the power of the multiples and the state of British farming. “The report states that multiples rarely deal directly with farms, preferring to deal through a handful of large wholesalers, processors or intermediaries. This country has lost more than half its dairy farmers. Pig producers are giving up in droves, and yet the CC fails to establish a link between highly profitable retailers selling 60 per cent of the food and drink we consume and the impoverished state of many of the primary producers responsible for the raw materials.”

Farrand believes the CC only considered the impact of the supermarkets in relation to whether it is good or bad for consumers. “Cheap food will always be in the consumers’ interest,” he said, “but this is a narrow, short-term and outdated position to adopt, the CC has failed to appreciate the likely medium term impact they [the supermarkets] will have on farming, small food producers and retailers and our high streets.”