Shoppers and farmers are being fleeced by high mark-ups on food prices by retailers, Fine Gael claimed today.
Agriculture and food spokesman Denis Naughten said consumers should be made aware that they are paying high food prices, but farmers are not getting the benefit.
"The latest Fine Gael survey of a shopping basket of beef, milk, eggs and a range of vegetables shows that the farmer gets €8.77 while the consumer is paying €22.97 on average for the same basket in the supermarkets, a margin of 162 per cent," he said.
"The highest margin is on cabbage which retails at an average of €1.39 a head while the farmer gets just €0.40, a margin of 247 per cent. Cauliflower is marked up from the €0.45 that the farmer gets to an average of €1.49 paid by the consumer, a profit of 231 per cent. A dozen of eggs is costing the consumer €3.58, a margin of almost 200 per cent on the farmer's price of €1.20."
Mr Naughten said the sample basket of food mostly includes products that require little or no processing yet between the producer and the consumer, the products are being marked up by an average of 162 per cent.
"Dunnes claims the title for the highest individual margin of 272 per cent on a head of cabbage but Superquinn has the highest overall profit of 174 per cent on the whole basket of goods," he said.
"The retailer with the next highest overall mark-up was Tesco, at 157 per cent, followed by Dunnes at 154 per cent."
The Longford/Roscommon TD said consumers need to know why they are not getting a better deal and farmers deserve to know why they are not getting a fair price.
"Retailers are continuing to make huge profits from the Irish market at the expense of both consumers and farmers with the consequence that quality Irish food is being undermined and farmers are at risk of going out of business," he said.