A local friend used to grow courgettes. He would supply to an intermediate, the only way he could sell them to supermarkets, who would then on-sell them to our local Countdown.

His courgettes, complete with his label, would be priced at $12.50 a kilo in the supermarket. He would have been paid $1.50 a kilo for them. They would of course need to be a certain size and appearance quality or be simply rejected.

He tried selling at the local markets, but customers were still so picky about the size and shape even selling them at half the supermarket price to cover his costs, he couldn’t make it work.

He gave up growing them.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago

There are many stories about the brutal contracts Countdown negotiates, where you might grow 100 tonne of something. Countdown will buy your 100 tonne for $1 per kg or whatever, and refuse to pay more. Your choice is to sell to Countdown at $1 a KG and they will take the 100 tonne, or you can turn them down, they will buy nothing, and then there's nowhere that needs 100 tonne of produce.

It's been in the media a bit over the years, and I think has led to the proposal for some rules for how supermarket negotiations are allowed to play out.

I have never in my life felt the urge to work for myself, but if I did, I won't become a farmer. People see the farmers with fancy cars and think they're all rich but they don't see all the ones going broke for reasons outside their control.