Windwards Bananas submitted its views on the Safeway takeover to the Office of Fair Trading last Friday and stressed that it is against Wal-Mart taking over Safeway.

'I have always held the view that supermarkets ought to be responsible to their customers and suppliers. There is no point in trying to kill suppliers to bring products as cheaply as possible to consumers,' Cornibert told the Journal.

'Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world and is known for the way it treats its suppliers. There is a danger in companies getting very big and then starting to flex their muscles, and Wal-Mart is flexing its muscles dangerously.' UK prices have tumbled 15 per cent since last spring, with no discernible sales increase when Asda sparked this by lowering its price nearly 13 per cent overnight.

'This is not something that can be justified in the long term,' said Cornibert. 'And the absurdity of the whole thing is that retailing bananas at 85p a kilo is not affecting sales: they are not selling any more bananas... Bananas should be at least 100p a kilo. That would be a fair price.'

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