UK farming industry calls for supermarket adjudicator

The UK’s National Farmers' Union has called on the government to bring forward a bill to establish a groceries code adjudicator to protect the interests of suppliers, producers and consumers. The country’s Groceries Supply Code of Practice came into force in February 2010, but no monitoring or enforcement body has been put in place. “The Coalition Government has committed to introducing an adjudicator and [in 2011] published a draft bill setting out its proposals," said National Farmers' Union head of government affairs Nick Von Westenholz. "The [National Farmers' Union] believes that, given the cross-party support for the adjudicator, and the fact that two select committees of [Parliament] have already examined the draft bill, there is no reason the formal bill can’t be introduced during the final months of the current Parliamentary session." The National Farmers' Union is calling for an adjudicator to be in place by the end of 2012.