FARMERS must fight the 'insidious growth in the use of closed-door deals' by livestock buyers – and always sell their stock through auction marts.

The Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland this week launched a 'Use Your Mart' campaign urging farmers to 'take back control and demand transparency in pricing' by selling through the ring.

The IAAS stated that major buyers – in particular those supplying UK supermarket chains – were increasingly demanding direct contracts with primary producers, and in the case of cattle, making further stipulations on each animal's 'maximum movements' over the entire production cycle. The Institute bluntly alleged that such stipulations amounted to nothing more than 'a deliberate attempt to avoid price scrutiny in the ring'.

Explaining its position, the IAAS said that the new campaign follows a series of complaints from farmers claiming to have been short-changed by direct contracts, particularly at times when short-term market fluctuations were avoided by the major buyers. Whilst there has been a gradual rise in such direct contracts over the past decade, the movement has become even more acute over the last twelve months – coupled with what the IAAS described as the 'noticeable absence of buyers representing supermarket suppliers from prime sheep auction rings' across the country.

IAAS president, Scott Donaldson, said: "Supermarkets are demanding more and more direct contracts at the very time when farmers need to ensure that they are genuinely receiving a fair price for their produce. This is a practice which puts the efficiency of the rural economy at risk and might even be deemed by the authorities to be anti-competitive.

"Access to a fair pricing regime, as delivered by the network of livestock markets that we represent, is the very cornerstone of fair farming practice. We want to work with supermarkets as important and valued stakeholders, but now is the time for this evasion on price to end," he said. “You would almost think that the UK’s major retailers were seeking to deliberately avoid fair and transparent pricing in our food chain – the insidious growth in the use of closed-door deals puts at risk the transparency and honesty that can only be guaranteed in the livestock auction ring.”

IAAS insisted that livestock markets were still the most efficient means of moving livestock through the different stages of production, ensuring that at each stage the buyer and seller receive the best price possible in the most transparent of environments, a public auction. But this system is increasingly at odds with supermarket buyers' specifications limiting or excluding cattle that have been deemed to have had too many movements in their lifetime, on the grounds that this increases their exposure to disease risk and has a negative effect on their welfare, despite auctioneers' investment in premises and practices that provide traceability and assurance along the supply chain.

Mr Donaldson added: “We know that the undermining of rural livestock markets by directly contracted arrangements is a real threat to agricultural activity in some of the most remote and fragile areas of Scotland. Once rural markets close, they remove a vital part of the support network for viable agricultural activity, and such closures look to be irreversible."