September 7, 2007

UK's Tesco heed farmers' calls for higher prices

UK's supermarket chain TESCO is heeding livestock producers' calls for higher prices to reflect rising feed costs.

The UK's biggest retailer this week increased its price on 12 pork lines by 7 percent and upped prices for several of its poultry lines as well.

The move was welcomed by the NFU and the National Pig Association (NPA), who launched a joint campaign this week to pressure big retail shops into paying higher prices to producers.

Feed costs have nearly doubled in the past few months as droughts and poor harvests led to the sharply higher grain prices in the EU.

The union and the NPA said they expect other retailers to follow Tesco's lead soon.