The NFU is about to put the CSR claims of the UK’s 10 biggest supermarkets to the test with a benchmarking exercise that will measure what retailers say in their corporate social responsibility statements against their actions.

The union will spend the next month mapping out exactly which retailer says what about their CSR commitments, after which it will identify best practice examples for different sectors such as dairy or poultry as well as on a cross-sectoral basis.

“This is about holding retailers to account for what they say,” said NFU director of corporate affairs Tom Hind, whose directorate is heading up the project. “It’s time for words to turn into actions.”

As well as measuring retailers against their CSR claims, the exercise would highlight shortfallings in the CSR statements themselves, particularly in relation to support for British farmers.

“Although many retailers will make claims about their commitment to Fairtrade or MSC, many haven’t yet embedded a commitment to British agriculture in their CSR agendas,” he said.

Hind cited the Co-operative Group’s new ethical plan as an example of a retailer making very loud noises about Fairtrade but being less forthcoming about its support for British farmers a charge the Co-op rejects. “The Co-op has long traded off its ethics but has struggled to translate that into support for domestic producers,” he said.

The NFU was keen to move away from “reputational benchmarks” that suggested a simplistic “Waitrose good; Tesco bad” dichotomy in British retail, and instead pinpoint exactly who was doing what to support British farming, Hind said.

The best practice examples that would ultimately emerge from the exercise would play an important role in shaping the NFU’s relationship with retailers, he predicted, adding that the big four as well as Waitrose, the Co-op, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland would be scrutinised.

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