I read that report earlier and thought it was complete madness.

"The supermarkets" have too much control over their suppliers and surely it's unfair practice?

Just a couple of incidents I know about, old, but they happened.

A grower was told by his buyer "We're giving two for one this week so you'll only get half your money". When the chap protested and said he'd sell his stuff else where he was told "You won't, read your contract".

A potato grower was persuaded by his buyer to invest in a sort of controlled environment (some sort of air conditioning?) so that he could keep his crop longer and get a better price as the countrywide stocks fell later in the Winter leading to a higher price.

That year was a bad year for potatoes in many places but as he had an excellent harvest on good ground his buyer wanted all his stock early in the Winter at the early price so he was cleaned out leaving him with the expensive machinery doing nothing and without the expected higher price to pay for it. He went bust.

I told the MD of a local chain about the "two for one" deal and he said that "they didn't expect suppliers to fund all the offer". That means they still expected a lower price?