Ahh, so it's the multinationals driving up food prices. There's me believing the supermarkets advertising that they source most of their products direct from Australian farmers.

What we really need is some genuine competition!! Ever since the retailers discovered trading terms as a tool to "negotiate" for extra $'s and then the large multi-national companies realised that if they "agreed to and locked in" terms they could have exclusive or preferential shelf position, stock weight and promotional activity the consumer has not been the primary focus. The "new rules" were then set and away they both went only being focused on shareholder returns and paying nothing but lip service to "customer needs". Get real folks, these guys will sling a bit of mud at each other and nothing will change. And competition does not come from more international retailers coming to Australia, it comes from those independent retailers that have almost become extinct as the authorities did nothing to stop the predatory behavior of the other large retailers - all 2 of them. Clever marketing campaigns keep all of us feeling like we are a priority. By the way I am not an independent retailer, just someone who worked in the industry for 15 years and witnessed first hand their appalling behavior.

Fancy Woolworths blaming others for price hikes after recently posting a 2 billion dollar profit.

No, Woolies doesn't price gouge the public or producers - hang on I'll just take off my rose coloured glasses. It's amazing how different things look with them on.

Supermarkets farm the farmers, and farm the consumers. Both get "Tigered".

Further to Katandra's comment. What would be really useful here is to have a site set up dedicated exclusively to highlighting the appaling behavior of these two retailers. Current and ex-suppliers could blog (anonomously if they wish) so that the real message of what practices this duopoly employ gets out there. Maybe then policy makers, Mr Samuel and other toothless tigers might start seriously looking at the monster they've created and do something about breaking these business' up. Perhaps there already is a site?

Pretty simply really. When woolies were buying my pumpkins from the market floor at $0.30/kg and selling them for $1.99/kg, you tell me who drives up the price.