The Revised Grocery Supply Code of Practice - Missing the Point?

Back in May of last year I was writing about excuses for late payment, and I mentioned the 'we are your biggest customer' excuse which is - as I remarked at the time - less an excuse for late payment than a form of commercial blackmail, because it is usually accompanied by the unspoken threat that the customer will 'delist' the supplier, and take its business elsewhere if the supplier doesn't knuckle down and accept the situation.

At that time, there was a Grocery Supply Code of Practice - and it obviously wasn't working too well. Now - thanks to the fact that Consumer Minister Kevin Brennan has accepted the Competition Commission's recommendation that there ought to be 'a body' to enforce the Code - there is going to be a Revised Grocery Supply Code of Practice.

The revised Code will come into force on the 4th of February next - but the consultation as to how it is to be enforced, who and what that 'body' might be, and the powers that that 'body' should have, is also scheduled to begin in February.

In other words, the new Code will be in place as of February 4th 2010, but 'the body' that is intended to enforce it will not be in place until later - possibly much later - and, moreover, exactly what powers of enforcement that 'body' should have, remains undecided.

The aims of the new Code look good - but then so did the aims of the old one, and frankly it seems to me that the underlying problem remains the same, and that the revised Code has (as yet) made no attempt to address it.

Under the new Code, large grocery retailers that exert pressure on small producers through extra costs and late payment could face fines - but what small (or even very large!) supplier is going to risk 'delisting' to report a large customer to 'the body' and its new Ombudsman because it has infringed the Code?

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn stated that "The new Ombudsman will help strike the right balance between farmers and food producers getting a fair deal, and supermarkets enabling consumers to get the high quality British food that they want, at an affordable price."

That would be nice - but I'm not holding my breath on this one.