European Commission urged to regulate supermarket power

The European Commission has been urged to take action to regulate the enormous powers of giant supermarket chains in Europe, which exercise tremendous influence over the food retail chain.{{more}}

A petition to this effect was handed over to Phillipe Chauve, Head of the Food Task Force of the Competition branch of the European Commission on June 20, in Brussels. Signed by thousands of European consumers, the petition was handed over by Vanessa Gautier of the Make Fruit Fair campaign, a coalition of non-governmental organizations demanding that the Code of Practice promised by the Commission to govern the supermarket chain, be extended to cover overseas suppliers. Gautier was accompanied by the leader of the Latin American banana workers Unions, Iris Mungia, and former Coordinator of WINFA, Renwick Rose.

Both Mungia and Rose had addressed a meeting of European Parliamentarians and their staff at the European Parliament, along with Chauve and a representative from the Commission’s Enterprise Department.

Rose, while urging the Commission to act to protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of banana workers and farmers, made it clear that they were not “anti-supermarket”. He pointed out that British supermarkets had helped to save the banana industry in the Windward Islands, by agreeing to the demands of consumers to sell Fairtrade bananas and that some supermarkets now stock only this type of bananas. Rose also referred to their continued commitment to sell Windwards bananas.

“However, it is also true that the intense competition among the supermarket giants, their use of bananas as ‘loss leaders’ to attract customers to their stores by low banana prices is having negative consequences for farmers and workers”, he said. In spite of the promised voluntary actions by the supermarkets, the Commission has a responsibility to act to ensure fairness in the trade between grossly unequal partners.

Rose is due to participate in a special meeting of the European Banana Network (EUROBAN) on Thursday and is due to meet with several officials of the European Commission on Friday in his capacity as Chairman of the SVG Non-State Actors Panel.