Scilly’s MP is taking on the Government and Office for Fair Trading on Tuesday.

Andrew George will argue that they aren’t protecting farmers and growers from powerful supermarkets.

Many of Scilly’s flower farmers sell their flowers to these national corporations.

Mr George will be joining Friends of the Earth to take on the government. He told Scilly News:’It is quite clear that supermarkets are able to dictate market conditions for farmers, growers and other small suppliers. The OFT recently completed a year long inquiry into the operation of the voluntary Code of Practice for supermarkets finding that no farmers or growers have used it, although 73% of those suppliers spoken to reported a ?fear? of complaining - this clearly being the main reason for the Code’s lack of effectiveness.

‘However, it is quite clear to me that farmers and growers are in an armlock and deserve better protection than they are receiving right now. In the main they are providing a perishable product and can be held to ransom by the supermarkets. Some of those I have spoken to in the trade are clearly able to point to evidence of the bullying and threatening practices, the practice of withholding payments, of charging extortionate prices for packaging materials and for undermining farm gate prices by requiring farmers to fund promotional campaigns, etc.

‘There is no need for further legislation or regulation. All we need is for the OFT to actually do its job. There are clearly unfair trading practices and the OFT now need to give this issue the priority it deserves. Not by undertaking further reviews - which is all that it has promised to do, but by promising to properly inspect the whole food supply chain on a permanent basis; to protect the anonymity of small suppliers when providing evidence, to require all those in the supply chain to provide evidence of their claims to be operating properly and to be able to publish unvarnished reports of their findings.

‘Farmers need and deserve protection from the powerful supermarkets and I am sure that consumers would feel happier knowing that their purchases are not damaging the interests of British agriculture and, indeed, encouraging fair trade for smaller producers in Britain, just as much as for producers in less developed countries.?

Mr George will be opening the debate ‘Supermarket Code of Practice? in Westminster Hall, House of Commons, at 11 am.