Ms Christine Tacon:

No, I do not think so, but that might just be because I have not been speaking to the right people in the chain. The direct suppliers in the chain have virtually never raised issues of pricing. They have raised issues about, for example, Tesco and Booker merging and Tesco putting them under pressure on pricing. I told them that such issues are a matter for negotiation and that, if they were in Tesco's shoes, they would do the same. I told them that they have to negotiate and to know when to say "No". People talk to me about tough negotiations but not about the fact that they are being pushed to a point where they cannot afford to continue, which is what I sense is happening here with primary producers. It is the case that for the first six months solid, I was explaining my role to farmers. They knew me as a farmer because I had been in the farming community for 11 years. I had to explain that my role was not to protect them unless they were a direct supplier. There was huge disappointment around that. A lot of farmers thought that pricing would be covered but it is not. I urged them to push for my remit to be changed if they believed something needed to be done. I cannot decide to get involved in these other areas.