The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has attacked farmers for failing to bring concrete, credible examples of market power abuses by supermarkets to its inquiry into grocery prices, and for relying instead on anecdotal accounts to argue farmers have been ripped off.
There has not been a single submission to the inquiry suggesting farmers have been dudded by the two major grocery retailers, according to ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, who is urging farmers to come up with specifics rather than vaguely suggest contracts may be dishonoured or farmers not fairly paid.
But the National Farmers Federation says it can't do much if farmers don't come forward and provide that information and has challenged the ACCC to use its resources and powers to investigate the smoking guns and anecdotal stories.
Mr Samuel said all he needs from NFF, or any farmers, is a name.
"It's frustrating for us, it's baffling, it's bewildering…" Mr Samuel said.
"I said to NFF 'please, you are the points of contact with the farmers'.
"If they have anecdotal information that there's a problem we want to know more.
"But no-one can give us any specific examples, no-one can name any individual that's got a problem."
Mr Samuel said NFF had suggested such farmers may be intimidated, but argued the ACCC can protect against intimidation by subpoenaing witnesses and having hearings in confidence.
"We're trying to encourage, entice, and do whatever we can to get any growers that have some real-life problems to come and tell us about them.
"But nothing specific is coming forward that would suggest bullying or harassment or oppressive dealings occurring, particularly by the major supermarket chains.
"In fact, to the contrary, those farmers that are coming forward say they've got dealings with the major supermarkets and they're very happy with them."
While Mr Samuel would not comment on suggestions the problems weren't with the major retailers but with processors and central markets, he said the inquiry was getting together confidential information in relation to the application of the horticulture code.
NFF vice president, Charles Burke, appeared before the inquiry in Canberra last week and said they'd been forced to only provide anecdotal evidence because farmers would not come forward.
"There's an amount of frustration because we all hear anecdotal stories about growers getting the raw end of contractual arrangements with processors or retailers," Mr Burke said.
"What's frustrating is that nobody is prepared to come forward and put some facts behind some of these stories and that's frustrating us and it's also frustrating the ACCC."
Mr Burke said there was no point making claims or accusations that couldn't be substantiated and called on the ACCC to use "all its powers" to continue investigating these matters.
He said NFF doesn't have the capacity to go investigating situations if they don't hear concrete evidence of them occurring.
"We have to be careful not to start putting numbers on things and also some times some of these things are simply just noise and nothing more…if there's a problem we are happy to go and push on behalf of the people experiencing those problems but if we don't get the information we can't go jumping at shadows.
"It's not worth (damaging) the credibility of the farming sector or NFF to start making accusations."
Mr Burke said despite the lack of evidence though, the facts still remained that the farm-gate price of many commodities has stayed relatively stable and in some cases dropped while the retail cost of some of those items has gone up exponentially.
"We've got figures to show that over a two year period the price of beef has dropped 13 per cent and the price of lamb has dropped 18 per cent at the farm gate," Mr Burke said.
"I'm damn sure that people in the supermarket aren't paying 13 per cent less for beef and 18 per cent for lamb.
"We don't know what is happening in the middle, and we aren’t suggesting there's any misuse of market power - what we are saying is the price at the farmgate is vastly different."
AusVeg chairman, David Anderson, said he hasn't asked farmers for any documented evidence of market power abuses because it wasn't his "place" to do that, but he had plenty of anecdotal evidence it was happening.
Mr Anderson said the majority of contact he's had from growers on market power issues was not regarding the duopolies.
"The bulk of contact I've had on this is to do with the major processors, the pack houses, the central markets and their associated companies."
*We want to hear from you if you have a specific example of market power abuses.
Contact Lucy Skuthorp or (02) 6273 4090 or lucy.skuthorp@ruralpress.com or Vernon Graham on (02) 4570 4497 or Vernon.graham@ruralpress.com.