Food price cap plans giving farmer ‘sleepless nights’

The policy is currently out for consultation, allowing interested parties to give their views.

The idea is that the big supermarkets would be the ones carrying the financial burden of the policy.

Speaking on his East Lothian farm, Wyllie said that – in reality – that’s probably not how things will play out. He fears the big retailers will pass any losses down to producers like him.

He said: “I struggle to see how, or why, they would swallow that cost”

“They’ll pass it down to us. We see it all the time”.

And he worries that when the supply chain dust settles, it will be him that picks up the bill.

“I’m the bottom of the food chain. I can’t pass my costs on to anybody else,” he added.

He runs a number of farms, specialising in pigs, sheep and crops for bread and cereal production and his costs have increased in recent years.

There’s been a UK government national insurance hike and there’s a looming UK-wide tax on fertiliser that will affect a farm of his size.

On top of this, his energy costs have doubled in recent years, with a standing charge of £1,500 per month before he’s even used a single unit of electricity.

Jamie worries that a food price cap could prove to be another burden that “might make producers think twice about what they’re doing”.

When asked what he means by that, he points out that farmers have other potential options: from switching to non-food crops, to selling their land so that AI data centres can be built on them.

He said that independent farmers are already spread thinly, doing every job from bookkeeping, to HR, to tractor driving.

He said: “Every time other items get thrown in, like this price cap, it does affect you. It does keep you up at night”.