According to the state's farmers, the evidence is clear that grocery prices are going up way faster than inflation, and they are supporting a recent Parliamentary report revealing our supermarkets are gouging both consumers and primary producers.

NSW Farmers believe that a suite of new laws and reforms are needed to crack down on bad behaviour by the nation’s major supermarkets reported in a Senate Inquiry handed down this month.

The introduction of divestiture powers and laws against price-padding, as well as a mandatory, enforceable food and grocery codes of conduct, were among the report’s recommendations welcomed by the state's farm leaders.

Statutory divestiture powers would address circumstances where a corporation has, or is taken to have, a substantial degree of market power and has been found to have misused their market power under the law.

NSW Farmers vice-president Rebecca Reardon said that the report’s findings were proof of the “profit-push” pricing practices by the nation’s major supermarkets that farmers and consumers had been grappling with for years.

“Prices are not down – supermarkets have clearly profited off consumers amid a cost-of-living crisis, while also using predatory pricing to extract huge margins from farmers too,” Mrs Reardon said.

“The huge market power our grocery giants have held for too long is what has enabled this behaviour to spiral further and further beyond our control, backing farmers and families into a corner from which they cannot escape,” she added.

With 14 recommendations handed down by the Senate to address supermarket pricing practices, Mrs Reardon said the inquiry findings were a strong step forward towards fairer prices for farmers and families moving forward.

“The Senate has heard the evidence and seen the light – we need to crack down now on price gouging and make our Food and Grocery Code mandatory and more enforceable, before more farmers are forced out of business for good,” Mrs Reardon said.

“It is pleasing to see the Senate also listen to our calls to introduce divestiture power provisions, expand the powers of the ACCC and take measures to increase price transparency in the food and grocery sector.”

She added that while the findings of the report are vital, legislative action to take on this issue, is now essential.

“Real consequences and real action is what we need, if we want to reform our grocery superpowers for good,” Mrs Reardon argued.

“So the fight won’t be over until we have recommendations translated into legislation that can prosecute unfair behaviour by our supermarkets,” she concluded.