The prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, was quoted by the Sunday Times saying there will be 'dire consequences' in the Caribbean islands if Wal-Mart is allowed to take over Safeway.

The premier claims that Wal-Mart's banana-buying policies are already damaging to the islands' banana industries. The store signed a global banana supply deal with Del Monte last spring. Since then, as reported by freshinfo, prices in UK supermarkets have declined 15 per cent with no evidence of any increase in sales.

Gonsalves is reported to have written to UK premier Tony Blair and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) complaining about Wal-Mart's actions and warning of the implications for Caribbean banana suppliers should Wal-Mart take over Safeway and indicating that Sainsbury's would be the best buyer instead.

Meanwhile, Morrison's formally tabled its £2.4bn offer for Safeway on Friday and 'strongly urged' both companies' shareholders to agree to it. Safeway now has less than two weeks to publish a response and Morrison's 60 days in order to finalise the deal. However, if a formal counter bid is tabled with the OFT then that two-month period may be extended.

In other supermarket news, Sainsbury's is believed to be reconsidering its health-and-beauty joint venture with Boots to allow it to concentrate on its Safeway bid. Trials for the joint scheme have been on-going in nine Sainsbury's stores over the past 18 months.

And Marks & Spencer is believed to have turned down the opportunity to join the Nectar loyalty card scheme, which involves Sainsbury's and Debenhams, as it could soon be launching its own joint credit and loyalty scheme.

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