The final report of the Supermarket Inquiry from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warns Coles' and Woolworths' exercise of market power and preservation of their information advantage over fresh produce suppliers will have significant long-term consequences for the efficiency and sustainability of Australia's fresh produce sector.
In response, the ACCC reserves over half of all its recommendations for dealing specifically with ways to better protect fresh produce suppliers from abuses of supermarket bargaining power.
Jolyon Burnett, chair of the NFF Horticulture Council, said the report must serve to establish better and continuously improving trading practices in fresh produce that ultimately put more money in the back pocket of hard-working growers.
"What is clear reading the report is that the relationship between supermarkets and fresh produce suppliers has been unfair, and too often exploitative and abusive.
"Sometimes you need to hear from an impartial observer, outside a relationship, before you realise the extent to which it's been unhealthy.
"We hope more than anyone, that supermarket senior executives and boards sit with this report, absorb its findings and conclusions, and use it to proactively turn a corner in terms of their practice and culture.
"The Council needs to thank the ACCC for quite obviously listening to growers and their representatives. Many of the recommendations concerning fresh produce supply, in part or total, have been advanced by the Council and its members.
"So, we are glad the Federal Government has seen fit to accept them all in principle. But of course, these wouldn't be the first ACCC recommendations to be left on the shelf.
"The Council will work hard with the Federal Government to ensure advanced protections are enshrined in the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct or otherwise put in place as soon as possible.
"We will also continue dialogue already initiated with major supermarkets to identify and remediate those trading practices not recommended for reform in the report but still detrimental to a fair and efficient fresh produce market."
