Peterborough's Riverford farm spearheads national campaign for better deal from supermarkets

​An organic vegetable delivery farm in Peterborough is spearheading a campaign to secure protection from supermarkets for fruit and vegetable growers.​

Riverford, based at Sacrewell Farm, has launched a petition urging the Government to create tougher protections for fruit and vegetable producers from the big six supermarkets.

They claim supermarkets do not pay on time, change orders at the last minute and that fruit and veg specifications are too complex.

The petition has already secured almost 30,000 signatures, which is more than enough for it to secure a response from the Government.

If it gets above 100,000 signatures the issue will be considered as the subject for a debate in the House of Commons.

The petition is part of Riverford’s #GetFairAboutFarming campaign as part of which an open letter has been sent to the chief executives of the nation’s six big supermarkets.

It has been signed by celebrities, such as entrepreneur Deborah Meaden and chef Rick Stein, plus 100 leading industry figures, and urges the supermarkets to commit to Riverford’s Fair to Farmers charter principles of pay what you agreed to pay, buy what you committed to buy and pay on time.

Guy Singh-Watson, founder of Riverford Organic says: “British agriculture is on its knees, and that’s why most small family farms think that they’re not going to be in business the next generation.

"A brutal, short-term focus on annual price negotiations is supporting supermarket margins while destroying British farming along with the landscape, wildlife and rural communities it once supported.

“The public wants better and would even pay a little more if they knew it went to support better farming.”

The petition can be found here.