Focus must shift away from low food prices - Dyson

Consumers are being urged to shift their focus away from lower prices to more nutritious food in supermarkets, the World Agri-tech Innovation Summit heard this week.

A panel was held at the summit in London where the key challenges and opportunities facing the agriculture sector were discussed.

Farmers in crop production have faced major challenges to stay profitable, as many supermarket chains have engaged in price wars, lowering the price of their vegetables.

Irish and UK farming associations have called for their governments to intervene and restrict the below-cost selling of produce being passed on to farmers.

Managing director at Dyson Farming, Daniel Cross said the short-term of the British government means that no “meaningful change” can be implemented.

He said the government needs to promote locally produced food to change the public desire from low prices to nutritious food.

Marketing

“Over the last 30 or 40 years, supermarkets have used price as a key marketing mechanism.

It’s what you hear most commonly, not where it came from or how nutritionally dense it is.

“They will tell you they are matching Aldi, and Aldi are matching Lidl, and you’re in a spiral of we’re all just price matching.

“Price isn’t the most important thing, it’s nutrition. Eating well locally, they are the things we need to focus on.”

Agriculture sustainability director at Lloyds Banking Group, Ben Makowiecki, said bank loans are not a silver bullet for transitioning to climate efficient farming.

Profitability

“We know that UK farming has struggled with profitability for the last few years and will continue to do so.

“A lot of farmers are struggling to service what they’ve already got, let alone us burdening them with more. So actually, the role we can play is as conveners.

“We have the power to bring together all the sections of the supply chain, top to bottom, and try and find common ground and reward farmers for making the transition to doing sustainable practices,” he maintained.