Ms Christine Tacon:

I have been hearing more about people who have developed compostable packaging but have been locked into using one retailer for a certain length of time, owing to the retailer wanting exclusivity for the product. In other cases, a retailer might have invested in a method of production or packaging or in a glasshouse but these things are generally properly agreed by the parties beforehand. The Deputy referred to buying alliances and Tesco and Carrefour have a buying alliance across Europe. The Deputy gave the example of batteries and these things are done to see if retailers could have big wins by acting together. The impact of Tesco and Carrefour buying things together across Europe is massive. People talk about things like blockchain and, in particular, traceability back to the farm gate so that one knows exactly what an animal has been treated with. I can see how claiming full traceability by using blockchain technology could make switching suppliers much more difficult. The Deputy is anticipating something that I am not sure has yet bitten, though that is not to say it will not at some stage.