"At least this way the public get to sample the best of Irish lamb without lining the pockets of multinational retailers, " said Mervyn Sunderland, chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association.

Tensions on the food supply chain have always existed and the relationship between the parties involved has been defined almost completely by conflict.

Falling margins in the food industry due to the rising costs of production mean this relationship is as fraught now as it has ever been. Prices for farmers have remained virtually stagnant for a long number of years; most small processors have operating profits of less then three per cent. Meanwhile, intense competition in food retailing has increased tension between the parties.

"Even today it really is unbelievable when you think of the amount of time this conflict still takes up, " said to Luc Vandevelde, former chairman of Marks & Spencers. "Retailers are often far too focused on getting the best deal and undercutting the price as much as possible while farmers cannot just presume they can produce something and get an automatic price for it, " he said.

"It is true to say that farmers do not have much market power, but politically they are ridiculously strong in comparison to their population numbers. My God, can they make noise when they need to, " he said.

The food industry with its agricultural base may be one of the strongest political lobby groups in Europe and Ireland, but it's the larger retailers with deep pockets and access to customers that have the greater market power.

"We don't have anything like the financial clout they have and they know that, " said the sales director of one food producer from the southeast who wished not to be named.

"You can imagine going in and telling them your margins are suffering and they almost laugh in your face.

There is a limited number of them (retailers) and we make sure we are never over-reliant on one. If it wasn't for the independents I'm not sure what we'd do, " they said.

Larger retailers, through their club card systems, also have the names and addresses of those customers who buy each product.

This market data has been used to point customers in the direction of retailers' own-brand products with more prominent shelf placement, and it continues to be an issue according to Bord Bia chief executive Aidan Cotter.

"Thing like that do go on, " he said. "There is no doubt that they (food producers) are in a weaker position than retailers and there have always been tensions between them, " he said.

"There is no other option for producers but to deal with the retailers. Rather than say anything negative about it, I'd say its an area where communication needs to be a lot better. Partnership is the way forward and creating consumer pull for your products is the important thing now for the Irish food industry, " he said.

One of the world leaders in brand management, Larry Light, former global chief marketing officer with McDonalds, said Irish farmers have to come together to form a brand in order to strengthen their hand with retailers.

"When you have that weaker negotiating position you must form a brand people can trust, otherwise you are just competing on price alone, " he said, speaking to the Sunday Tribune in Croke Park where he was a guest speaker at the Bord Bia conference.

"If I was an Irish farmer I would be acting together and gathering as much information as I can about my customers. It would be very hard to do if you are running a small family farm but it's the farmers and the processors who are the experts on their products, not McDonalds or the retailers. If they can understand the customer, they are the ones that can sell it the best, " he said.

However at least one industry expert has predicted the end to this traditionally antagonistic relationship.

Vandevelde believes that as commercial realities kick in for the food industry, they will adapt to form more of a partnership role.

"This conflictual relationship will disappear in time and I think you will see a growth in the number of partnerships, " he said. "Some of the most successful things we did in Marks & Spencer were in partnership with suppliers. I think both parties have to realise that they have to give up ownership of their product and pass it on to the consumer if both want to survive."

M&S TALKS UP ETHICS

MARKS & Spencer became the latest big international retailer to pay more attention to criticisms of its supply chains. Last week M&S posted its best profit result in nine years, at 1.42bn, in part due to record sales of 530m in its Irish shops. But in the UK there was some grumbling that the return to profitability has been achieved by dumping British suppliers in favour of cheaper east Asian contractors, following a trail blazed by Penneys and Tesco.

On Friday the company fired off a salvo burnishing its image for social responsibility, pointing to its aim to make its shops carbon-neutral, its investment in sending Ugandan children to school, and its plans for ecofriendly lingerie factories in Sri Lanka and Wales. It pointed to its expansion of lines in Fairtrade products . . . selling 32m in 2006/2007 versus 6m in 2005/2006 . . . with tea, coffee and sugar going Fairtrade.