Henry Dimbleby highlights the UK’s “weird supermarket culture” as a “market failure” and identifies a lack of government strategy (Food tsar blames shortages on UK’s ‘weird supermarket culture’, 4 March). For 30 years, successive governments have allowed the main multiple food retailers to develop an almost monopsonistic marketplace. That has been the strategy, the reason being there is no stronger way to control inflation than in a monopsony. But you can’t have excessively cheap food if you want a continuous supply of high-quality food from a responsibly farmed countryside.
It is a tough decision that the government, consumers and shareholders need to face up to.
Antony Adorian
Billingshurst, West Sussex
• My well-stocked independent greengrocer tells me that the shortages in supermarkets are because they won’t pay realistic prices to growers. The cost of our weekly bill has risen markedly – understandable in view of world events. Supermarkets must stop pushing their suppliers into the ground, and we shoppers must appreciate that they need to survive if we want their produce.
Michael Miller
Sheffield
• Henry Dimbleby says: “There’s just this weird supermarket culture … that has emerged in the UK … and I don’t know why that is.” He can find out by asking how much the owners of the supermarkets donate to the party in government.
Pete Lavender
Nottingham
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