Second, and related to the first trend, employment in these sectors has become less attractive to the UK workforce, leading to labour shortages ( Geddes and Scott, 2010). First, there has been a rise in the incidence of low paid, irregular and non-unionised work in the agricultural and meat processing sectors ( Rogaly, 2008). This increasing gap between those at the top and bottom of the supply chain has been accompanied by two other trends during recent years. Large retailers have squeezed profit margins and independent producers have become ‘amalgamated via acquisitions, mergers and cooperatives into large and more specialised industrial operations’ ( Geddes and Scott, 2010: 196).
As power has been concentrated into the hands of the so-called ‘big four’ supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – competitive pressures between the sub-contracted growers, producers and processers below them in the supply chain have intensified. During the last three decades there has been a significant shift in power within the UK food industry away from small-scale producers and manufacturers towards large retailers and multinational corporations.
