Panel tables bill to make grocery chains sell Maine produce

AUGUSTA – State legislators have tabled a proposal targeting large grocery retailers until next year, giving the Maine Department of Agriculture more time to work with farmers and retailers to promote locally grown produce.

Members of the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry voted unanimously last Friday to hold the “Shaw’s Bill” over until the next session. The bill is so named because it focuses on retailers such as East Coast grocery giant Shaw’s Supermarkets.

Howard Jones, a marketing expert within the Agriculture Department, said he has been working with a core group of farmers and Hannaford Bros. during the last several months to overcome hurdles on both sides that have derailed marketing local produce to chain grocers.

But, Jones cautioned, the responsibility for the success of such a program lies mainly with the farmers.

“I am opposed to government building white elephants,” he said Monday. “I believe that we can show the farmers how to market, where to market and what to market, but the rest is up to them.”

Jones said a dozen large Maine farmers have been working with Hannaford Bros. to determine what the grocery chain needs from local farms and how to get it into distribution.

One example, he said, involves green bell peppers. There are times in the growing season when Hannaford’s supply of the peppers cannot meet the demand, said Jones, and this program could correct that. “Maine farmers benefit, and so do Hannaford and their customers,” he said.

“Of course, what is so exciting,” said Jones, “is that the opportunities lie beyond just the stores in Maine, to the thousands of stores outside the state.”

To do business at a chain-store level, issues such as direct-store deliveries, consistency of product and efficiency of operation need to be addressed, Jones said. He said the pilot program, which at this point is dealing only with Hannaford because of its convenient, in-state distribution center, should prove very successful as long as Maine’s farmers can remain price-competitive.

Sen. John M. Nutting, D-Leeds, the bill’s sponsor and a member of the Agriculture Committee, said Monday that “if the Maine Department of Agriculture is aggressive enough and their marketing program appears to be working, I’ll move to kill the bill myself next January.”

Nutting has been a vocal proponent of forcing Maine’s largest grocery retailers – Shaw’s, Hannaford and Wal-Mart – to buy and promote more local produce.

Calls to Shaw’s spokesman Bernard Rogan were not returned.

As originally proposed, the bill would have barred any large grocery store in Maine from receiving substantial tax breaks if it didn’t buy from and promote at least 75 individual Maine growers.

LD 1534 would have prohibited large grocery stores – those that gross more than $200,000 a month – from receiving any rebates from the state’s Business Equipment Tax Refund program unless they met three requirements: they purchase produce from at least 75 Maine farms; that none of those farms are charged a slotting fee; and that the store provide the Maine Department of Agriculture with a list of all farmers supplying the store.

Nutting said that at Friday’s work session on the bill, amendments were proposed that took individual store owners out of the bill, expanded the number of farmers to 100 and eliminated the gross sales requirement, instead basing a store’s participation on floor space.

“Farmers are all taxpayers,” Nutting said. “The millions of dollars in the BETR payments come from the General Fund, the taxpayers’ fund.”

Although Nutting has been fighting the battle for local farmers for nearly two years, he said he was willing to wait another year to see if the Agriculture Department’s marketing program would work.

“I am very pleased that we were able to keep the idea of the bill alive and kicking, while continuing to promote local farmers,” he said.

Jones said Maine’s farmers have seen plenty of failure and many are convinced only by success. “As they see their neighboring farmer having success with the program, they are going to ask to get involved,” he said. “Next year, we will be able to start sooner.”