SuperValu has suspended a promotion offering customers free vegetables alongside the purchase of certain meat products on foot of complaints from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
The grocery chain last week ran a promotion offering free carrots and potatoes when customers bought roast beef, which was also discounted by 50 per cent.
This week the retailer ran a similar offer on onions and mushrooms.
"Following representations made by the IFA to SuperValu, the retailer has decided not to extend the current promotional programme beyond tomorrow," IFA president Joe Healy said.
“We will be meeting with the retailer again in the near future to express farmers’ anger at this type of promotion,” he added.
The farmers’ lobby has called for the establishment of a retail ombudsman amid complaints that farmers are picking up the tab for below-cost selling in the grocery sector.
A supermarket price war in 2013 saw the price of carrots fall to as low as 5 cent per kilo in some outlets.
