"Fairness" report

Unfair fight: farmers against supermarket giants

Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) sees a "battle with unequal weapons".

(Bild: APA/dpa-Zentralbild/Jan Woitas)

Unilateral contract changes, late payments and less money for their products - this is what many farmers in Austria have to deal with. What's more, the food trade is dominated by giant chains such as Spar, Hofer and Rewe.

Just how unfair the situation of agricultural businesses can be is recorded in the activity report of the "Fairness Office" published by the Ministry of Agriculture. Farmers are struggling with rising labor and energy costs - yet in some cases they are denied a price adjustment for their products.

Consumers pay more and the farmer gets less
An example of a traditional and family-run butcher's business is particularly impressive: a retail chain increased the price of a product for consumers by almost a third. But things got even worse for the small business: at the same time, the butcher was paid two percent less for the product, as stated in the activity report.

The Fairness Office

The Fairness Office is an independent body to which farmers can report anonymously and free of charge if they are confronted with prohibited or unfair trading practices. The office is primarily intended to help farmers to assert themselves against food giants such as Spar or Hofer.

The ombudsman's office, which was set up under former Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP), began its work in March 2022.

The "Fairness Office" exists for cases like this - the office that is supposed to help farmers defend themselves against such unfair measures. In 2024, complaints to the office increased slightly. A total of 239 farmers contacted the "Fairness Office", four more than in the previous year. Indirectly, however, more than 600 farmers were affected, according to the activity report.

Minister: "Fighting with unequal weapons"
 Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) sees a "fight with unequal weapons". More than 100,000 farmer producers and processors are facing "a handful of retail giants", criticizes the minister. "Many producers fear losing their shelf space and are forced to accept unfair conditions because they lack alternatives," emphasizes Totschnig. This is because almost 90 percent of the food market in Austria is dominated by large chains such as Spar, Hofer and Rewe.