Two kilos of white-fleshed potatoes (we are talking about Great Britain after all), a kilo of carrots or a pound of sprouts for 15p (around €0,18). With the traditional vegetables for the Christmas table, English supermarkets are doing stunts in the days before Christmas to get as many customers as possible in the store. In doing so, the supermarkets are sending out a very wrong signal about the value of food, according to the British farmers' association NFU.
Attracting customers with a few extremely cheap products in the hope that they will also add more expensive products with a higher profit margin to their shopping basket. This is called the 'loss leader' strategy and is not uncommon in retail. According to the NFU, stunting with vegetables creates false expectations among consumers. "While promotions can have a positive impact on growers by boosting sales volumes, growers have long been concerned about the impact that heavy discounts can have on consumers' expectations of the true value of British produce," an NFU spokesperson told The Guardian. How do you explain to a consumer that carrots cost 15p (€0,18) just before Christmas when they are on the shelves for 65p (€0,79) the rest of the year?
The other sore point for British farmers is who is footing the bill for the bargain prices. Supermarkets claim to be covering the cost of the discount themselves, but farmers are skeptical. Growers typically have long-term agreements with supermarkets. The gift supermarkets give to consumers is built into the annual price paid to the grower, according to a source at The Guardian. "Anyone who sells a bag of carrots for 17p is making a huge loss," an insider told the paper. Such dynamics underscore the power imbalances in agricultural supply chains. Farmers are facing rising production costs while the prices they receive for their produce remain the same or even fall slightly.