Food retail sector like 'wild west'

IRELAND’S FOOD retail sector has been compared to the “wild west”, where supermarket multiples are “slaughtering” the Republic’s suppliers.

Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creedtold the Dáil that in August last year, multiples had a 177 per cent mark-up for milk, for which farmers were getting 31 cent a litre and now only 21 cent.

“The retail sector is like the wild west. There is absolute mayhem where Irish suppliers are being led like lambs to the slaughter by the multiples.”

He said Tesco’s “global turnover is more than 1.5 times the GDP of the State” and “I fear Tesco is running rings around the Government.”

But Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smithsaid if regulations needed to be implemented they would be "urgently".