Business organizations across Scotland’s retail, food production, manufacturing, and distribution sectors have collectively appealed to First Minister John Swinney to abandon his government’s planned food price cap scheme. The joint letter from twenty-three groups was submitted ahead of Swinney’s government programme announcement on Tuesday.
The Scottish National Party pledged in its election manifesto to introduce legislation requiring large supermarkets to impose price limits on essential food items including milk, eggs, cheese, and rice. Swinney has framed the initiative as necessary to address affordability challenges facing households and characterized it as a public health responsibility to ensure access to nutritious food at reasonable prices.
Signatories to the letter—including the Scottish Retail Consortium, Food and Drink Federation Scotland, Scottish Bakers, and Dairy UK—contend that a statutory price cap would fail to address the underlying factors driving elevated food costs, such as rising production, refrigeration, and distribution expenses. Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, described the proposal as an “appallingly terrible idea” and argued that price caps do not reduce food price inflation but merely displace costs to other areas of the supply chain.
MacDonald-Russell cited Hungary as a cautionary example, where similar price cap policies reportedly resulted in shelf shortages, displacement of domestic products with cheaper imports, and friction between retailers and customers. Business groups further warned that the policy could disadvantage smaller retailers not covered by the legislation and potentially increase overall shopping basket costs when implementation expenses are factored in.
The proposal is understood to necessitate modifications to the UK Internal Markets Act of 2020. The Scottish Government responded by reaffirming its commitment to addressing cost-of-living pressures and confirming that a consultation on food price controls would be launched to gather additional stakeholder input.
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