{"id":39702,"date":"2024-12-21T18:42:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/farmers-protest-over-asdas-exclusion-of-ni-produce\/21\/12\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T18:42:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T23:42:09","slug":"farmers-protest-over-asdas-exclusion-of-ni-produce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/farmers-protest-over-asdas-exclusion-of-ni-produce\/21\/12\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers protest over Asda&#8217;s &#8216;exclusion of NI produce&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">A group of farmers have staged a protest at an Asda supermarket over claims the firm is excluding some Northern Ireland produce from its shelves over Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">They held a demonstration outside the firm&#8217;s supermarket and depot in Larne, County Antrim and said it is replacing locally-grown potatoes with cheaper alternatives from Great Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Farmer Stephen Christie said Asda&#8217;s move would &#8220;make it very difficult for farming families&#8221; this Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Asda said the &#8220;overwhelming majority&#8221; of potatoes sold in its Northern Ireland stores are locally sourced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It added it understood &#8220;the frustration from local growers around imported produce being used&#8221; in its discounted Christmas offers and agreed to discuss the issue with the Ulster Farmers&#8217; Union.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"col-body mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">&#8216;Undermining our business&#8217;<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-[4] size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Stephen Christie said the move by Asda would affect business for farmers [BBC]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Stephen Christie told BBC News NI that the supermarket was &#8220;undermining our business&#8221; by bringing in potatoes from Great Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;We grow all year for Christmas, there should be good business for us,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;They should be supporting local produce over Christmas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The campaign insisted the switch to cheaper imported produce over the festive period was &#8220;definitely going to affect&#8221; farmers financially.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"col-body mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">&#8216;They&#8217;re being excluded&#8217;<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img alt=\"Sammy Wilson stands in front of a red tractor. He has grey hair and a blue coat. An Asda sign is visible behind him.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/i0b_.EYDk362mTF7K8ewag--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/e5367cad632fff49212d18a0956ed21c\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-[4] size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson also attended the protest [BBC]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The area&#8217;s MP Sammy Wilson. who attended the protest to show his support for the farmers, said Asda had &#8220;questions to answer&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;Asda are supplying local customers. They&#8217;ve got local suppliers who could make potatoes available to those customers and they&#8217;ve decided that rather than buy locally they&#8217;re going to buy from England,&#8221; said Wilson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;The main part of the year for their market is Christmas and they&#8217;re being excluded by a big supermarket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;This goes totally against the promises which supermarkets make about buying local.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Mr Wilson said squeezing farmers out of business in the long run would &#8220;make food sustainability much more difficult&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">In a statement, an Asda spokesperson said: &#8220;The overwhelming majority of our potatoes sold in Northern Irish stores are locally sourced and we are proud to support local growers in Northern Ireland all year round.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">They added that Asda had brought in a vegetable offer for Christmas &#8220;to support families when they need it most&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;We understand the frustration from local growers around imported produce being used in these offers and have been listening carefully to their feedback over the past few days,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">&#8220;We have agreed to discuss these concerns further with the UFU (Ulster Farmers&#8217; Union) early in the new year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/farmers-protest-over-asdas-exclusion-210225217.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of farmers have staged a protest at an Asda supermarket over claims the firm is excluding some Northern Ireland produce<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/farmers-protest-over-asdas-exclusion-of-ni-produce\/21\/12\/2024\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}