Below is a list of recent news and media coverage. For older items, see News archive.
NAMNEWS: 23/04/2018
Tesco Working To Ensure Booker Is GSCOP Compliant
Tesco is urgently working with buyers at Booker to ensure its newly enlarged business is compliant with GSCOP rules.
With the Code currently only covering the top 10 supermarkets in the UK, Booker’s activities have not previously been covered by the Adjudicator, Christine Tacon. However, having worked hard to improve its dealings with suppliers since the 2014 accounting scandal, Tesco is reported to have called for a “culture change” amongst buyers in the Booker operation.…
Financial Times: 12/04/2018
EU eyes crackdown on unfair practices by powerful food buyers
Brussels is proposing a crackdown on powerful food buyers that force predatory terms on small suppliers, in a move to protect producers that has alarmed some large European retailers.
Phil Hogan, EU agriculture commissioner, will on Thursday unveil a package of reforms to ban “unfair” contract terms and empower national authorities to police the conduct of big buyers such as supermarkets and food production companies.
The proposal would set minimum standards so member states can take action “to protect the more vulnerable [suppliers] in the food chain,” said Mr Hogan in an interview with the Financial Times.…
The Grocer: 19/2/2018
Taking Tacon down the farm was never going to wash
It’s no wonder farming groups are disappointed by the government’s decision not to extend the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, to cover primary producers.
Going back now at least three years, they have been strung along by successive governments into holding out hope that the Adjudicator might be ordered to descend like an avenging angel to stop them being bullied by the big, bad supermarkets.…
The Grocer: 27/11/2017
Time for a new approach to food assurance
Does anyone remember the Efra Committee episode where Neil Parish et al tried to get Groceries Code Adjudicator Christine Tacon to answer questions on farmgate prices, despite the fact her role doesn’t have anything to do with meat and dairy farmers, or pricing?…
Food Manufacture: 20/07/2017
Food Suppliers ‘Must Open Up About Retailer Abuse’
Suppliers were “finally opening up” but could still be “more forthcoming” in coming forward with their issues with retailers, Christine Tacon claimed.
Writing in her Annual Report and Accounts for 2016-2017, published at the end of June, Tacon reassured suppliers’ that their identities would be protected.…
Farmers Weekly: 19/07/2017
‘Climate Of Fear’ Must Be Tackled In Grocery Market
The supermarket watchdog is making significant progress tackling unfair trading in the grocery supply chain, but more must be done to tackle the “climate of fear” that stops suppliers speaking out.
That is the conclusion of the government’s statutory review of the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA), which also said the GCA had led to a positive “cultural shift” among supermarkets in the way they treat their suppliers.…
Groceries Code Adjudicator Annual Conference Report
Groceries Code Review
Significant Cultural Change In Supermarket Industry
Small Business Minister Margot James has welcomed a positive relationship change between supermarkets and their suppliers, as she publishes the first Statutory Review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) today.
The review, which considered independent findings from YouGov alongside responses from trade associations, supermarkets and suppliers, found that the GCA, Christine Tacon CBE, has been effective in exercising her powers and enforcing the Groceries Code.…