It was bound to happen in the end. And it gives me no pleasure to have been pre-empting it in comment pieces for some time.

The growing community around the world is heartily fed up with the treatment being meted out by UK retailers, and the backlash has begun.

I have been listening to unofficial disquiet for the last couple of years, as more and more members of the supply chain have been dragged into the mire. Understandably, nobody wants to go on the record and state facts - which is why the OFT Supermarket Code has remained toothless. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and for many suppliers hooked into UK supermarket programmes, times have rarely been quite this desperate.

Maybe there is a feeling that by speaking out now, the words could fall on more receptive retail ears. M&S may have bundled more costs onto its lucky supplier network, but you would think there must be a significant section of the supermarket set that recognises that current pricing strategies are sending growers and suppliers hurtling lemming-like towards the precipice.

For a substantial proportion of the global supply chain, this really is the point of no return. The UK supermarkets, still lauded around the world as brilliant exponents of their art, risk throwing away not only the long-held loyalty of a supplier network, but their well-deserved reputations.