Mr Mohan said, “Tesco without cause increased prices for local branded eggs by up to 30 per cent while at the same time maintaining own-brand eggs at the original lower price. This practice is forcing consumers who have had a preference to support locally branded eggs to choose Tesco’s own brand on price difference.”

He said, “This makes branded eggs less competitive against Tesco’s own-brand products, and in producers view, this is anti-competitive as they primary producer gets no more of the extra margin foisted on the product. Tesco cannot be allowed to drive consumers towards their own-brand products by increasing the price of the locally sourced produce.”

Mr Mohan called on Tesco to immediately address the situation as producers cannot and will not accept further attempts to undermine local brands which to this point were well supported and provided farmers with viable livelihoods.